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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



rice pattern. The wet clay is first formed 

 into a crude cup or plate on the potter's 

 wheel. After the piece has dried for 

 several hours or for a day, it is carefully 

 scraped with a special kind of knife 

 which conforms to the curvature of the 

 vessel. The next step is to cut in the 

 kernel-shaped holes. This is done by a 

 skilled workman, who uses a small, flexi- 

 ble steel lancet. 



I had always thought that the rice pat- 

 tern was made by pressing kernels of rice 

 into the damp clay. It was not until I 

 saw the actual process that this erroneous 

 impression was corrected. After these 

 small apertures have been completed the 

 vessel is ready for the under-glaze paint- 

 ing. Decorating finished, the next step 

 is to apply the glazing fluid. This is a 

 thin, milky substance of high-grade porce- 

 lain. Sometimes the bowl is dipped, but 

 the cold, raw liquid is usually put on with 

 a soft wool brush. 



The operation is repeated about thirty 

 times, with an interval for drying, until 

 all the holes are filled. Five or six coat- 

 ings only can be applied in one day. The 

 piece is then fired in the usual manner, 

 and comes out of the furnace with the 

 filled holes standing out in beautiful trans- 

 lucent designs. 



The firm exporting the largest quan- 

 tity of porcelain from Ching-teh-chen is 

 a Chinese company in Xew York City. 



Each piece is carefully packed by hand 

 in rice straw before it is packed in large 

 boxes. These foreign boxes are made in 

 Ching-teh-chen, and after being marked 

 both in Chinese and English are shipped 

 directlv to New York. 



J 



CHING-TEH-CHEN HAS A BIG FUTURE 



The outstanding impression which a 

 Westerner carries away from this teem- 

 ing industrial city is the primitiveness of 

 the methods in use. In not a single shop 

 or factory does one find modern ma- 

 chines. Not even the simplest mechanical 

 devices for operating a series of wheels 

 by means of belts are to be found. Every 

 piece of porcelain is turned out by hand — 

 or by foot. 



Yet it is astonishing how much these 

 patient workmen produce with their obso- 

 lete methods and crude devices. New 

 ideas penetrate interior China slowly, but 

 with the opening of the Nanking-Nan- 

 chang Railway, which has been planned 

 and surveyed, Ching-teh-chen will as- 

 sume a position of commercial influence 

 that will astonish the world. The enor- 

 mous clay deposits, together with the 

 quantity of cheap labor, touched by the 

 magic hand of a twentieth-century artist- 

 engineer, will push this old and interest- 

 ing city into a position that will far out- 

 shine her ancient glory. 



c i 



THE MAN IN THE STREET" IN CHINA 



Some Characteristics of the Greatest Undeveloped Market 



in the World of Today 



By Guy Magee, Jr. 



CHINA offers today more allure- 

 ments, both to the legitimate pro- 

 moter and to the professional 

 exploiter, than any other quarter of the 

 globe. With four hundred million peo- 

 ple, a market of tremendous potentiality 

 already established : cheap, intelligent 

 labor abundant: money worshiped, and a 

 national spirit yet lacking — what could 

 present a more inviting field for enter- 

 prise? 



So much misinformation, or rather 

 lack of information, is extant in regard 

 to the every-day characteristics of this 

 great people that the present seems op- 

 portune to acquaint ourselves with the 

 '"man in the street." In numbers he is 

 second only to the agricultural class ; in 

 importance as a market for immediate 

 foreign development he stands first. 



In forming our opinions of things 

 Oriental, either from a cultural or a 



