Craft Production in a Socialist Planned Economy: The Case of Jingdezhen's State-Owned Porcelain Factories in the Mid to Late Twentieth Century (original) (raw)
Related papers
Sustainability and Authenticity of Chinese Traditional Crafts in the Contexts of Luxury and Tourism
2020
Chinese crafts have been examined from economic, historical and aesthetic perspectives, but rather less attention has been devoted to them in the literature on luxury and tourism. When considering the former, it is worth noting that some of the world’s leading brands had their origins in craft businesses, notably Louis Vuitton, and that craft skills remain important for this industry in the 21st century. On the other hand, there is a common assumption that craft souvenirs represent a cheap and debased version of human material culture but, as many academics have asserted souvenirs come in a wide variety of forms, including what Graburn (2000) has called ‘pride goods’, in which peoples visited by tourists sell products that are simultaneously economically useful and boosters of esteem on behalf of the producing community. It is with these thoughts in mind that we turn our attention to the production of Chinese craft products in the early 21st century. As one of the leading handicraft...
Theorizing (IM)MATERIAL Heritage in China - International Conference
2019
Two days of interventions and discussion are hosted by the Department of Archaeology and Museum Studies, School of History, in Renmin University of China, in collaboration with the University of Cambridge Mongolian and Inner Asian Studies Unit (MIASU), through the generous sponsorship of the Institute for the Promotion of Chinese Language and Culture, Renmin University of China. The first day, with a strong regional emphasis on the Inner Asian steppe and the historical Chinese ‘frontier’, confronts archaeological and anthropological research on the culture of the area, questioning the notion of ‘intangible’ in its methodological and theoretical dimensions. The second day gathers on-going projects in the fields of Museum Studies, Creative Practices and Religious Studies questioning the boundaries between ‘material’ and ‘immaterial’ in Chinese cultural heritage around the themes of authenticity, religious sites and perception. To present day, China has made great strides in developing a comprehensive cultural heritage preservation regime—including ‘material’ heritage, ‘intangible’ heritage, etc.—. In recent years China has attempted to both incorporate and integrate its cultural protection mechanisms into global discourses of cultural preservation regimes. China’s unique history, national circumstance, and special considerations all contribute to an equally unique outlook on cultural heritage and heritage protection, yet nevertheless done through an internationally recognized vocabulary of preservation norms. It is precisely due to this unique history and development process that Chinese cultural heritage preservation concepts differ from other regions and countries. Particularly in the case of ‘intangible’ cultural heritage, international preservation regimes are understood to begin at the ‘grassroots’ where local recognition of cultural heritage protection leads to locals seeking out support from governments or IGOs/NGOs so as to preserve, develop, transmit, and even promote heritage that they themselves perceive as valuable and endangered. Yet in China, the process is quite the opposite. Chinese conceptualizations of heritage protection begin with Party and central government institutions, which are then filtered down to regional and local governments, and finally to the common people. That is to say, the state formulates policies which require lower levels of government to seek out and identify local cultural heritage to be protection, transmitted, and promoted. To be sure, neither worldview is more correct than the other, where each has its merits. Nevertheless, this alternative outlook and system of practice has developed a radically different understanding of ‘heritage’—and has yet to be properly theorized.
2018
The value and potential of the cultural heritage, if adequately managed as a resource, is the key element for the lasting development and for the quality of life in a society in continuous evolution Faro Convention Culture is at the basis of a symbolic world full of meanings, believes, values, traditions and as such it holds a fundamental role in human development. Cultural Heritage, tangible and intangible, includes a wide variety of artistic and cultural forms of expression like, inter alia, literature, the visual arts, architecture, music and theatre and may provide important benefits for society and the economy. The cultural experience is not only a single event in the life of an individual, it can also contribute to the development of joint sense of identities in sparse population. The dissemination and valorization of cultural outputs requires new production and consumption modalities (ACRI, 2003). Also, the adoption of new technologies offers innovative opportunities and dynamic managerial perspectives. This has significant, yet often untapped, potential for stimulating jobs and economic growth, and fosters the development of other sectors in the economic system. Culture thus holds an essential role for the creation of national wealth through numerous implication of social, economic and political nature. In particular, to invest in cultural resources means contributing to improve the quality of life in a specific territory, attracting new economic, financial, and human resources, improving social and territorial cohesion as well as defining new types of artistic careers. In light of the above, it is important to foster creative and innovative approaches, including development of new tools and methods, to the preservation of Cultural Heritage and its transmission to future generations. Marchegiani L. 10 This book collects the papers that have been presented during the first edition of The International Conference on Sustainable Cultural Heritage Management (SCHeMa 2013), which has been held in Rome at Roma Tre University on October 11-12, 2013. The papers collected here have been selected through a blind peer review process. As cultural heritage studies are rooted in diverse academic backgrounds and proliferate in different yet complementary streams of research, it is our profound convincement that interdisciplinarity is mandatory in order to reach a deep understanding of the value drivers that cultural heritage management can enact. The intersection between cultural policies, cultural industries, and creativity poses unprecedented challenges and yet opportunities to the broad field of cultural studies. Certainly, it opens up contamination between disciplines that have kept some distance from one another. Cultural economics, geography, management, clustering are but some examples of these disciplines. Coherently, the International Conference SCHeMa 2013 embodied the spirit of multidisciplinarity approach, as the tracks of the Conference had been conceived in order to gather diverse persepctives on Cultural Heritage. As a result, the papers presented in the following sections offer a multidisciplinary and complementary approach to the most recent challenges that cultural organizations, institutions, and policy makers face. At times of economic crisis and uncertainty about the future, nurturing and valorizing the Cultural Heritage can constitute an appealing hope. Through the collaborations of academics from different disciplines and background and professionals with diverse sets of skills, it will be possible to offer new economic, organizational, technical, and sociological insights for a Sustainable Management of Cultural Heritage.
The Impact of Learning and Engaging Around Heritage Crafts in Mingei
The Impact of Learning and Engaging Around Heritage Crafts in Mingei, 2022
This impact report on the Mingei project responds to three impact research questions and one overarching research question. What is the impact of the Mingei heritage partners embracing digital transformation in the context of Mingei and the digitisation of the tangible and intangible aspects of heritage crafts? • To what extent did the tools and processes introduced by the Mingei project (and the impact evaluation work package) contribute to processes of digital transformation? • To what extent has the Mingei project supported the development of stronger or new connections or ways of connecting with wider heritage crafts communities, for longer-term impact in terms of heritage crafts digital preservation and transmission? • What might the potential impact and legacy in terms of the Mingei project be, when considering the possibilities of reuse and the future exploitation of the Mingei tools, approaches and products? We respond to these research questions by thinking about how and what impact can be created for participating partners when impact is approached not as something that happens at the end of a project, but as something that happens throughout. Blending an impact evaluation approach with a strategizing approach has the advantage of focusing the project on where we can realistically, and within the timeline of the project, assess impact. It also guides legacy activities after the project ends. Despite the identified barriers to digital transformation, outcomes like positive attitudinal change, more confidence and a positive reputational impact, as well as further project collaboration and technical innovation, are likely to lead to more sustainable futures for Europe diverse heritage crafts.
European Journal of Sustainable Development, 2019
Improving the quality of life and creating various economic benefits, conservation of cultural heritage can contribute to sustainable development as a concept having environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects. Intangible cultural heritage as the chief reason of cultural diversity particularly guarantee sustainable development. In recent years, the increase in the concern about local ways of life, festivities, has motivated the conservation of intangible cultural heritage specifically, and contributed to the continuity of the implementation of traditional craftsmanship as a domain of intangible cultural heritage and guaranteed the sustainable development. The conservation of traditional craftsmanship necessitates providing the transmission of knowledge between master and apprentice and the continuity of practice. Through 20th century, rapidly changing life conditions, the demand for traditional craftsmanship has noticeably decreased causing the decrease in the number of practitioner craftsmen. It needs to regenerate the organic relationships of crafts with the changing life conditions for their conservation. Tourism can be a motivating force to regenerate interrelations with the increasing demand of tourists for traditional crafts. This paper aims to present the effects of tourism on crafts and discuss specific conservation approach focusing on the sustainable development of historic environments particularly focusing on 17 sustainable development goals highlighted within the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development published by United Nations General Assembly in 2015.
Reinventing Craft in China: The Contemporary Politics of Yixing Zisha Ceramics
How does a craft reinvent itself as 'traditional' following cultural, social and political upheaval? In the township of Dingshu, Jiangsu province of China, artisans produce zisha or Yixing teapots that have been highly valued for centuries. Yet in twentieth-century socialist imagination, handicrafts were an anomaly in a modern society. The Maoist government had clear ambitions to transform the country by industrialization, replacing craft with mechanized methods of production. Four decades later, some of the same artisans identified as 'backward' handicraft producers in the 1950s and made to join workers' cooperatives, were now encouraged to set up private workshops, teach their children and become entrepreneurs. By the 2000s ceramic production in Dingshu is booming and artisans are buying their first cars, often luxury brands. However, many involvements of the Chinese state are apparent, from the control of raw materials, to the inscription of the craft on China's national list of intangible cultural heritage. In this perceptive study, Gowlland argues that this re-evaluation of heritage is no less inherently political than the collectivism of the communist regime. Reflecting that the craft objects, although produced in very different contexts, have remained virtually the same over time and that it is the artisans' subjectivities that have been transformed, he explores the construction of mastery and its relationship to tradition and authenticity, bringing to the fore the social dimension of mastery that goes beyond the skill of simply making things, to changing the way these things are perceived, made and talked about by others. "Gowlland takes his reader on a captivating journey into a world of craftwork that has undergone seismic change since the era of Chairman Mao. A combination of rich ethnography, refined analysis and the author's hands-on understanding of the potter's materials and techniques convincingly demonstrates that craft knowledge and aesthetic appreciation are deeply embedded in the political. This is a highly significant book for all scholars of craft and material culture." Trevor Marchand, Emeritus Professor of Social Anthropology, School of Oriental and African Studies