Trandtional Technology And Social Transmittion

The subject of this study refers to the changes and evolution of porcelain painting in Jingdezhen,Jiangxi Province,a city famous for its artisans since centuries ago.The object is to demonstrate how Chinese society changes influenced the style and skills of Jingdezhen artisans,when they had to adapt to the technical,structural and social reforms affecting the Chinese and Western societies.Jingdezhen has been a famous worldwide model in the art of porcelain making,taken as a example by Western Artist in the matter.But the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the west with its revolutionary way to mechanize production introducing "assembly line" type of operations,created a formidable competitor for the traditional Jingdezhen way of making porcelainsJingdezhen artisans,on individual basis,decided not to compete with the Western type of mechanized and uniformed production,instead they reacted by placing extra artistic emphasis into their products,noticeable different to "assembly line" production A second stage of change took place after substantial Institutional and Economic methods took place in China during the 1950s,where the private enterprise model was declared obsolete;Jingdezhen artisans had to joint resources by creating work cooperatives;this action signaled an important change(not for the better) in the artisans ability to produce high quality porcelain with individual artistic contain.The porcelain articles produced during that time reflect a noticeable "factory" type of products.A new Era begun in China by 1980's with Deng's economic reforms.At this time Artisans were able to return to their traditional methods of making porcelains,including household production,expressing their ideas with complete artistic freedom and individual way of producing their artworks;the result was distinctive and noticeable.The era of factory production was at visibly at its end.The re-introduction of private enterprise in Jingdezhen porcelain making brought a new and creative renaissance era to the famous town.