FW: Making china in China. JingDeZhen porcelain.

[Ric Swenson]

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From: ricswen...@hotmail.com
To: cla...@lists.clayartworld.com
Subject: Making china in China. JingDeZhen porcelain.
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2015 09:35:15 +0800

Dear clayart folks,

It has been some time since I last posted about life in JingDeZhen. Some of you may have seen one of my facebook shares of two fairly recent videos about JDZ. About 2200  views so far. The videos show JDZ in a very good light...the streets do not always look so clean in real life, but the ceramic works and workers are all real.

Summer coming to a close...the Fall semester at JingDeZhen Ceramic Institute (soon to re-named a University) starts Sept. 7.  Over 20,000 students now...most study ceramics arts,sculpture, painting or engineering but there are English majors and majors in marketing, finance, trade,automation and even pre-law to name a few.  There are three colleges in JingDeZhen they all are centered on ceramics. About 30,000 total for the three schools. A year's tuition is about 1,200 RMB (about $2,000 USD.) We are a four year institution the other two offer two and three year certificates. Since JDZ has been known as the Porcelain Capitol since 1004 AD. most learn to work with the difficult to throw Kaolin based pure clay. as you might know, Kaolin is derived from Gao Ling...the small village in JDZ proper where a mountain of primary clay was discovered.  The word China, as I am told, derived from the original name of JDZ which was Chang Nan, that the West pronounced as CHINA. An early Emperor changed the name the JingDeZhen in honor of his reign name.

It was a warm summer and we had to crank-up the AC on some days. My Chinese wife, Dorothy took a three week trip with her Art and Design  PhD classmates to XinJiang in the far N.W. corner of China. She reported VERY hot days there and as they crossed the Gobi Desert a lack of vegetation and dry condition. She complained of the long distances between historic site...ie.. long bus trips. The group all liked the food there, which is very different from the very spicy JDZ fare. Rich in mutton and noodles (la mien- stretched noodles) She returned with local handcrafted works from the region, Russian chocolates and dolls and a LOT of photos.  On her return trip by train she stopped in HeNan to visit her folks and sister's family. I stayed at home, tutored students in Oral English in preparation for their study abroad in USA, Australia and England. They must pass an English test (TOFEL, IELTS or SAT) in order to attend H.S. or college abroad. My youngest student was 8 years old and is now in Singapore, where all the classes are in English, and oldest were 22, a girl going to USA to work on a masters in business  and a fella going to Melborne, Aust. to study advertising and media.  It is becoming more common now for students to study abroad....they have more money and motivation too.   When I came to live here in 2006, such possibilities were rare.

 I also took care of our  four cats this summer.

I keep up with news from USA via MSNBC, CNN, BBC and even my hometown newspaper from Anchorage, Alaska.  I am not very political, but enjoy and am mostly amused by Trump on the stump, Feel the Bern, and Hillary's woes.  The news is sometimes very disturbing...students in China ask me if ALL Americans have guns...I answer NO, but too many do. The Chinese people cannot have a gun...the only time I ever see a gun, it is not the police that have one, but the guys who escort money in armored cars to the banks. They have shotguns. Major crime is rare here but petty theft is pickpockets who want your I - phone... but never at the point of a gun or knife. 

My personal works are functional porcelain plates or  jars with texture," winged" jars and acrylic abstract and landscape paintings on canvas. In a town with 60,000 potters and ceramic artists and workers, it is pretty stiff competition.

Will teach Oral English this term to threes Freshmen classes and three Sophomore classes...all English majors...and mostly young women. Some of the Frosh students have NEVER had a conversation in English with a foreigner !   I coach some Grad. students in throwing, design and decoration techniques. Next yer I will retire from the Univ. and spend time traveling, potting and painting. Having started teaching ceramics and art at all levels, since 1971, it is time to relax a bit. We have a nice apt here near HuTian Ancient Kiln site on the banks of the ChangJiang River  a tributary of the Yangtze, the third longest river in the world. HuTian kiln site was used as a civil kiln for making common ceramics starting in the Yuan Dynasty. There is a small museum and the remnants of the original kiln. Life here is peaceful and calm....yet the market place nearby hums with people.

All the best,

Ric

 

 

[Rick Mahaffey]

Hi Ric,

I will be in JDZ in October for the ISCAEE conference.  We start in Beijing on October 16 and then head to JDZ a few days later.  I will look up the schedule and let you know what days we will be in JDZ.  I hope that I can see you again.  We last met in 2006 in JDZ during the same conference.

Class here in Tacoma start on September 21.

Look forward to seeing you.

Rick 

Sent from my iPad

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[Ric Swenson]

Hi Rick,

Looking forward to seeing you again.

Ric

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From: rickma...@comcast.net
Subject: Re: *ClayCraft* FW: Making china in China. JingDeZhen porcelain.
Date: Fri, 28 Aug 2015 17:36:52 -0700
To: clay...@googlegroups.com

[Eric Hansen]

Thank You Ric! I am going to forward the post to my wife who is in ELS at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., where formal classical porcelain is greatly appreciated. Maybe there is an English teaching connection.

Eric Hansen
Hansen's Hermetic Garage
Stonehouse Studio