Decoding Jingdezhen Ceramics with Tech II.

I am Özge from Izmir, Turkey. In the last episode, we saw how traditional craftsmanship is being redefined by technology. But the life of a ceramic object doesn't end there. Today, we will see how those fragments, those glazes and those forms can achieve immortality in the digital world. Hongya Ceramic Art Museum is not far from my campus, but I never imagined it held such cutting-edge technology. Porcelain piece is scanned into a computer and even the bubbles beneath the glaze are perfectly visible. It is different from traditional pictures, videos, and 3D models. At the same time, based on such cutting-edge technology, especially for cultural relics, we have developed a solution called optical reincarnation for porcelain pieces. Using optical reincarnation technology, we can turn a cultural relic into a digital asset. We can magnify it. You can see many parts of it, including its brushstrokes. You can see it very clearly. It doesn't feel like it's broken. So does this belong to the color glaze? This is a low-temperature color glaze. Then we spray it on. So this is a temperature of 1,230°C? Yes. The temperature of low-temperature color glaze is between 750°C and 950°C. Porcelain piece is actually a digital technology launched and implemented by Jingdezhen. It was actually established in March 2025. Its core value is to use the latest digital technology and optical reincarnation solution to turn porcelain pieces all over the world into digital assets and return them to Jingdezhen. This is the process of digital reincarnation. Actually, this whole program is that we specially made for this Qingguan Wanchi, or what we call a thousand museums and myriad porcelains. And actually, we categorize all of these assets into three levels. The first is the source of these porcelains, because some of them are from museums, some from the universities, and some from the artists. How many museums are in collaboration with this technology? So far, we have been cooperating with more than 30 museums, and the number is still growing. Actually, it's not just about the museums, but universities, institutes, and national level craftsmen. And how long did it just to make this one image take with this many, with this detail? Just an hour, from a physical one to a digital one. This young expert gave me a new insight. Ceramic artworks can also be digital assets. So through this whole set of software and system, we can ensure that any product data can be tracked and resourced. In the digital world, ceramics is like water, able to flow anywhere. The place I'm going to next shows another feature of water, not rushing away, but converging. Sanbao Village, an art paradise, tucked away in the valley. Ceramics maestro Li Jianxian has nurtured this place for more than two decades, turning it into a global hall for ceramic art without walls. Could you briefly tell us about Sanbao International Ceramic Art Village? We are the first international residency program opened to the international in 1998. I have over 100 artists that participated in the opening, with the mayor, the president of the university, Qin Shilin. Everybody was here. But you know, back to 25 years, nobody understood what I was doing. I bought this Dolby House Village for what? Open the new access and a door to the international people. So we were, people always joking around, you know, because the farmers can speak some English. This seasoned artist has his own unique perspective on technology. The speed of AI today is definitely 100 times or even 1,000 times faster than that of a human. We are all humans at the root of everything. The so-called AI is a tool. It just helps you do one thing. Ten years ago, I could have done it in a month. This goes back to the unique value of Jingdezhen's clay. The elasticity of the clay that grows with the 5,000-year civilization of mankind. The uniqueness of the clay that grows with the 5,000-year civilization of mankind. This can't be expected. Otherwise, people have no meaning. The richness of our creativity makes people the subject of all technology. If you leave the subject, any technology means nothing. The unique art and craftsmanship of ceramic will leave the last paradise for mankind. Sanbao Village is home to artists from all over the world. They are known as foreign Jingdezhen nomads. Numbering more than 5,000. They bring their own cultural aesthetics to this ancient town. They find resonance in clay and fire. And in turn, influence the development of Jingdezhen ceramic culture. Artist Wissam is from Iraq and travels from Norway to China for the first time. He's currently working on a large-scale mural. My name is Wissam Al-Samad. I'm originally from Iraq. But I live in the Kingdom of Norway. I came to this beautiful place under the invitation of the International Academy of Ceramics in Geneva. God willing, I'm going to carry out a large mural consisting of 44 pieces. I'm going to use these 44 pieces to represent the word love. These words are present in war literature. But I'm going to use them in a contemporary way. Through this work, I'm going to try to combine three cultures. The culture of the country from which I came, which is Iraq. The culture of the country from which I live, which is the Kingdom of Norway. And the culture of the country from which I'm going to produce this work, which is China. I think I'm going to work on this work at a very sensitive time. The world is now living in a time of wars, racism, and other things. I think that through love, we can face these bad things. I mean, it's far from religions, nationalities, and other things. So I'm very happy with this experience. And I'm more than happy that I'm going to produce this work on local clay in the city of Samba. In Samba, what I see is not technology replacing handcraft, but people from all over the world using different tools and languages to do the same thing, understanding the world through ceramics. But I wonder, where do these works go after leaving the studio? This iconic place is called Tashichuan, a cultural and creative area created by renovating old porcelain factories. Every night, it becomes a hub of ceramic trade, cultural exchange, and creative interaction. Xiaonan is a vendor here. Today, she showed me a brand new way to explore the market, live streaming while walking. How to say pomegranate? Pomegranate is a symbol of prosperity in Turkey. So when we buy a new house, we break the pomegranate in front of the house, in front of the front door, so that the house always prospers. And also the same in the Turkish weddings. Live working stream means holding a phone to wander around the market line. Taking audiences on an online tour of Jingdezhen is not just a simple sales. It's a flow of casual. Even if audiences can't be here in person, the lens gives them a sense of presence. They get to see real artworks, real vendors, and real trading moments. Technology breaks geographic boundaries for ceramics. Viewers can witness the whole process of a ceramic cup from wedding throwing and leading to fairing. This transparency builds trust much faster. More and more creators like me are doing live working streams. If you want to know more, let's turn to Tao Xichuan. Was it really popular with foreigners? Were there many foreigners coming here in 2016? How many artists are in Tao Xichuan from how many different countries? We're about 50 countries from all over the world. And right now, how many Turkish artists would there be in the residency? Four to five Turkish here. We have many young people here, many young Jingdezhen drifters. And we have a very young group to run this street. Jingdezhen is no longer just a geographical porcelain capital. It is a network connecting creators, artworks, and buyers through technology. And at the heart of it all is data. Today, I have seen three ceramic flows flowing between people at the market, traveling through time and space in the digital world, and crossing borders through cultural resonance. As a young student from Turkey, I found my own voice in these flows. I want to share this inspiration with you. Cultural heritage is never about copying the past, but about each of us continuing the story in our own way. I am Özge in Jingdezhen, and I have seen the infinite possibilities of ceramics.