THE WORLD'S ANCIENT PORCELAIN CENTER 



By Frank B. Lenz 



With Illustrations from Photographs by the Author 



CHIXA is a land of literature, art, 

 and scholarship. It is also a land 

 of ignorance, superstition, and 

 misery. It is the country made famous 

 by the printing-press, mariner's compass, 

 gunpowder, the Great Wall, tea, silk, jade, 

 paper, and ancient porcelain ; it is the 

 home of plague, famine, intrigue, flood, 

 graft, and corruption. 



Conservative of the conservatives, it is 

 also a radical among radicals. One sees 

 in every city ancient, decaying temples, 

 with their oriental systems of religion 

 gradually giving way to the progressive, 

 onward march of civilization. Change, 

 change ; nothing is permanent in China 

 but change. 



Industrially the country is in the same 

 state that Europe was in before the ap- 

 proach of the industrial revolution. It is 

 in the handicraft stage of development; 

 but in cities like Canton. Shanghai, Han- 

 kow, Changsha, and Tientsin the most 

 modern machinery of the twentieth cen- 

 tury is seen in operation every day. This 

 is not China. The real China has yet to 

 learn the value of the machine. 



FOUR-FIFTHS OF CHIXa's POPULATION IS 

 DFVOTED TO MANUAL LABOR 



Perhaps the only factor which permits 

 China to compete in a commercial way 

 with the rest of the world is its cheapness 

 of labor. 



It has been repeatedly said that the 

 cheapest and most abundant thing in the 

 country is human life. The common 

 man of the farm or of the city is the 

 coolie, properly called "k'u li," or, better, 

 strength. When we reflect that 80 per 

 cent of China's vast population is forced 

 to labor hard, barehanded, for a mere 

 physical existence, we can begin to grasp 

 the significance of its industrial situa- 

 tion. Xo modern inventions ; no ma- 

 chines have come to set it free. Like 

 Edwin Markham's "Man with the Hoe." 

 the Chinese worker feels the weight of 

 centuries of toil upon his shoulders. 



The economic problem today is tragic, 



and were it not for its natural character- 

 istics of patience, China would be in the 

 throes of a bloody revolution. 



THE HOME OF THE WORLD'S PORCELAIX 

 INDUSTRY 



The greatest industrial city of China is 

 not one of the treaty ports, where the 

 direct influence of Western progress is 

 constantly felt, but a bustling interior city 

 of Kiangsi Province — Ching-teh-chen.* 

 This is the famous porcelain and pottery 

 center of the nation— indeed, it is the 

 original home of the porcelain industry 

 of the world. 



There are few cities in America or 

 Europe that are so completely given over 

 to a single industry as this one. Though 

 the methods of production are primitive, 

 the city must still be classed as an indus- 

 trial center. It was my rare privilege to 

 visit this conservative, but interesting, 

 old place and see with my own eyes the 

 fascinating process of pottery-making 

 from beginning to end. 



Chinaware ! What does the word con- 

 note ? It is simply a ware made of clay 

 and named for the-- country that first 

 produced it. Whether it be a green tile 

 from a temple roof, a dish, a vase, or a 

 painted ornament from a wealthy Celes- 

 tial's home, it all has a traceable connec- 

 tion with Ching-teh-chen. With the 

 Chinese, Ching-teh-chen and porcelain 

 are synonymous. 



In order to get a fair understanding 

 of the situation, it will first be necessary 

 to let the reader know the location of 

 this place and something of the difficul- 

 ties in reaching it. 



HOW TO REACH CHIXG-TEH-CHEX 



After locating Shanghai on the map of 

 China, one should trace his way up the 

 Yangtze River to Kiukiang. south of 

 which lies Po Yang Lake. The quickest 

 and surest way of reaching Ching-teh- 



* The city is designated on many maps as 

 King-teh-chen. King-te-chin, or Chang-nan- 

 chen. 



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