Institute Leading Development Of Ceramics In China

By Erda Khursyiah Basir JINGDEZHEN (CHINA), May 30 (Bernama) -- Ceramics is globally known as one of the greatest inventions of ancient China. Not only is it a symbol of Chinese culture, but over the years it has evolved and also become accepted as a ‘business card’ for China’s foreign culture exchanges. In 1947, the President of Jiangxi Provincial Ceramic Vocational School, Wang Fang, designed and made the wedding dinnerware ‘Two Dragons Frolicking with a Pearl’. The dinnerware was then sent to Queen Elizabeth II, representing the Chinese government. Until now, they are still in the Windsor Castle in England. Chinese ceramics continue to attract global attention when two pieces of pottery works named ‘Peace’ and ‘Harmony’ from the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute (JCI) were collated in the British Buckingham Palace in 2015. INTEGRATION OF SCIENCE AND ART The President of JCI, Professor Jiang Weihui said that ceramic was the art of soil and fire, and the integration of science and art which could not be invented nor developed without innovation. Cognisant of the needs of the ceramics industry and the development of the local economy, JCI has taken the responsibility to lead the mission by implementing technological innovations. “JCI is the only ceramics institution of higher education in China. It has a long history. Its predecessor is the China Ceramic Industry School founded in 1910, initiating modern ceramic education in China,” he said. In 2003, the National Household and Architectural Ceramics Engineering Research Centre was established in JCI to provide technology research and development, standardisation and testing, personnel training and other services for the industry. It is the first engineering research centre in Jiangxi Province. Since then, the National Engineering Research Centre of New Ceramic Materials, the National Ceramic Products Quality Supervision and Inspection Centre, the China Ceramic Intellectual Property Information Centre and 25 other scientific research service platforms of national, provincial and ministerial level have also settled into the university. Weihui said these facilities have formed a ceramic-oriented comprehensive service system covering scientific research, technology development, pilot incubators, achievement transformation, product design and manufacturing. Besides that, it also contributed to the standardised construction, quality supervision, product testing and analysis. It also provides technical exchanges, personnel training, information services, intellectual property rights and copyright trading. DEVELOPING ROAD MAPS JCI has designed ceramic industry development road maps for many ceramic-producing areas and provided more than 3,000 enterprises with more than 10,000 testing services, quality control basis and evaluation. It also has developed 47 national standards and 54 industry standards, undertook 17 ceramic and patent information training involving more than 2,000 local trainees and over 3,500 trainees through distance education. Weihui said the institute has developed a number of new ceramic materials and technologies with the country’s intellectual property rights. “This includes the ‘high performance and low expansion ceramic material’ which won the China National Scientific and Technological Progress Award, the ‘nano-modified ceramic films’ and ‘high temperature ceramic red ink’ which have accelerated energy conservation, emission reduction and optimisation and upgrade in the ceramics industry. “In the effort to continuously promote ceramics culture and art, JCI has actively carried out international exchanges. Apart from that we also held faculty and students’ exhibitions of ceramic art at the UNESCO headquarters, the University of Cambridge and the Asia Museum of Greek,” he added. CHINA-ASEAN BRIDGE JCI also has frequent exchanges in the field of education and culture with other universities in Asean. Since it first recruited international students from Vietnam in 1958, the has established friendly and cooperative relations with more than 30 colleges and universities from more than 20 countries. “We also have trained more than 3,000 international students and promoted the international development of ceramics technology, culture and art. In recent years, many students from Asean have come to study ceramic art while teachers in our institute have visited and given lectures in countries like Malaysia and Singapore. “In 2013, an Indonesian delegation group visited our institute. Last year, one of our postgraduate students went to Vietnam and participated in the third China-Vietnam Youth Festival. We have built a profound friendship in mutual learning and exchanging,” he elaborated. He believed that the Maritime Silk Road initiative is also the ‘Road of Ceramic’ and that JCI played an important role in running educational activities by actively integrating into it the national strategy. This is done by hosting significant international seminars on the Marine Silk Road and international academic activities like China’s (Jingdezhen) high-tech ceramic international forum to assist the ‘Belt and Road’ strategy. “JCI will take ceramic as a medium and continue to build bridges by promoting the cooperation and communication between China and Asean countries and building positive achievement in the 21st century Maritime Silk Road,” he said. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SIDEBAR JINGDEZHEN Jingdezhen is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of Jiangxi province with a population of 1.7 million. It is known as the “Porcelain Capital” due to its highly prosperous ceramics industry and because it has been producing pottery for 1,700 years. Jingdezhen ceramics is known globally as the city is China’s most important ceramic production and export base. It is also the country’s ceramic research and education centre. In addition to the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, the city has also built and developed the Jingdezhen China Ceramics Museum, Jingdezhen Ceramic Co. Ltd, the Taoxichuan Ceramic Creative Industrial Park and the Jingdezhen Kiln Folk Culture Exhibition. -- BERNAMA