By Song Yiran, People’s Daily
Located in the northeast of Jiangxi province in east China, Jingdezhen is renowned both in China and abroad for its porcelain and is widely known as the “millennium porcelain capital.” In January 2025, Jingdezhen’s handmade porcelain industry heritage sites were officially submitted to UNESCO as China’s nomination for the 2026 World Heritage List.
Jingdezhen possesses not only millennial ceramic heritage but also a long tradition of openness and inclusiveness. Historically, it was said that only 20-30 percent of people that lived there were locals, while the rest were migrants drawn by its thriving porcelain industry.
Today, around 5,000 foreign residents have made their homes there, known locally as “Jingdezhen drifters.” They have become part of the city’s everyday life, as communicators of ceramic culture, contributors to urban development, and co-creators of the distinctive character of this global city of crafts and folk arts.
Discovering the Cultural Heart of Jingdezhen
Yann Colleu, from the French overseas territory of Reunion Island, first came to Jingdezhen in 2017 for a short-term study program and was immediately captivated by the atmosphere.
“I became obsessed with the place,” he said with a smile.
What stayed with him was extended far beyond the masterful handiwork of seasoned local potters. Jingdezhen’s ceramic traditions are not museum pieces frozen behind glass; it is a living tradition, carried forward through gestures, language, customs, patience, and daily practice.
In 2024, he and his wife returned to Jingdezhen and established their own studio there.
When he first arrived, he could not speak a single word of Chinese. One day, a craftsman handed him a lump of clay and gestured: “Come on, give it a try.”
Colleu placed the clay on a wheel, and it collapsed three times. Each time, the craftsman patiently helped him reshape it and simply said: “Take it slowly.”
That afternoon, Colleu realized something important: “Language is not a barrier, and hands are the best translators.”
A young man in a neighboring workshop freely repaired dozens of his flawed clay prototypes without charge, asking only that he paint classic blue-and-white porcelain patterns for them as repayment down the line.
Once, when Colleu was selling ceramics at a night market, a local woman running a neighboring stall helped him attract customers. “Foreign artist’s work — very creative!” she called out. At that moment, he stopped feeling like an outsider.
By 2025, the total output value of Jingdezhen’s ceramic industry had exceeded 100 billion yuan ($14.77 billion). The city is home to more than 58,000 handmade ceramic workshops and approximately 150,000 ceramic industry workers, while maintaining partnerships with more than 180 cities across 72 countries.
“No matter where you come from, as long as you respect tradition and are sincere about craftsmanship, people here will treat you as one of their own,” Colleu said.
Today, he is pursuing a doctoral degree at Jingdezhen Ceramic University, searching through bowls and porcelain fragments for earlier and deeper connections between Jingdezhen and the wider world.
From Old Kilns to New Creative Spaces
When Australian artist David Reid first visited Taoxichuan Ceramic Art Avenue in 2006, what he saw was an abandoned industrial area covered in overgrown vines and surrounded by aging red-brick factories.
He did not realize then that he was standing at the starting point of a city’s transformation.
In 2018, he returned to establish a studio, learn the traditional blue-splashed glaze technique, and transfer more than four decades of ink-painting experience onto porcelain.
Walking back into Taoxichuan, the transformation left him “almost unable to believe his eyes.” Former factory buildings had become museums and creative marketplaces. Former firing workshops now hosted exhibitions.
Today, Taoxichuan draws more than 33,000 “Jingdezhen drifters,” incubating over 4,500 independent ceramic brands. Old factories, ancient kilns, and historical alleyways have not disappeared. Instead, they have continued their cultural legacy through new functions. For instance, Sanbao village has transformed from a remote mountain settlement into a popular artistic community. The 1,127 Ming- and Qing-Dynasty (1368-1911) residences in Taoyangli have been restored. Ancient kilns such as Xu Family Kiln have resumed firing.
“Jingdezhen’s transformation wasn’t about tearing down the past and starting over,” Reid said proudly. “It was about allowing old factories and historical neighborhoods to grow new functions.”
Last September, at the age of 70, he held an art exhibition in Jingdezhen. The exhibition featured 41 works and was a gift both to himself and to the city.
Making a Home in Jingdezhen
Cultural appeal may attract people initially; promising industry prospects bring many back for extended stays. But what truly makes people stay is a sense of comfort and security built through everyday life.
French artist Camille Grandaty spent years traveling around the world before 2015. “I rarely lived in one country for more than two years,” she said.
All that changed once she landed in Jingdezhen, where she has resided continuously for the past 11 years.
Last September, shortly after becoming a mother, she received the residence card she had long dreamed of, becoming one of only three foreign residents in Jingdezhen to obtain permanent residence permits in China.
In 2022, Jingdezhen introduced policies facilitating visas and residence permits for overseas residents, providing foreign nationals with measures such as multiple-entry visas and residence permits lasting between two and five years according to individual needs.
With a more open and inclusive approach toward global talent, Jingdezhen allowed Grandaty to truly settle down.
“The treasure of Jingdezhen is its craftsmanship,” she said. “It cannot even be called a living fossil, because it has never stopped living — it has thrived every single day.”
Driven to learn all 72 ceramic-making procedures, she stayed for 11 years. Stable, long-term life in Jingdezhen gradually changed her artistic expression as well.
On her workbench stands a clay sculpture of a rooster created together with her Chinese mentor’s wife. “The rooster is a symbol of France,” she explained. “This work is the product of cultural exchange between France and China.”
Clay pulled from the earth, hardened under intense kiln fire, shipped across vast oceans to reach global markets. That is the story of porcelain.
People come to Jingdezhen from every corner of the globe to study, create, and build their lives before sharing the story of Jingdezhen with the world. That is the story of “Jingdezhen drifters.”
These stories continue year after year. They speak not only of the cultural appeal of the millennium porcelain capital, but also of how a Chinese city is innovating through preservation, growing through cultural inheritance, and connecting with the world through openness and inclusiveness.
