Research On Export Trade Of Jingdezhen Ceramic To Europe

The charm of the millennium kiln fire made the glorious history of Jingdezhen, as the Capital of Porcelain in China and the representative of Chinese ceramic culture, Jingdezhen enjoys an extremely high reputation in the world for its export ceramic. Along with the promotion of the Belt and Road strategy, Jingdezhen got a new opportunity for development. The output value of Jingdezhen ceramic industry reached 29.16 billion yuan in 2014, which was the 22.6 times in 2000. The ceramic industry tax was 425 million yuan, which was 34.5 times in 2000. As one of the most important starting point of ancient Silk Road, the ceramic in Jingdezhen started to export to the European market in Song Dynasty, the blue and white porcelain in Jingdezhen was well-known at home and abroad in Yuan Dynasty, and the ceramic export volume reached its peak during Ming and Qing Dynasties. However, since modern times, with the development of mechanization and the market economy and many other factors, the export volume of Jingdezhen ceramics to Europe is far less than before.Since modern times, the status of Jingdezhen ceramics has gradually been threatened by the ceramics for daily use in Chaozhou, the architectural ceramics in Foshan etc., and the situation that export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe is becoming increasingly grim. Though Jingdezhen enjoys the Capital of Porcelain for millennium and its regional brand is still deeply rooted in people’s heart. However, lacking of famous ceramic enterprises and the small workshop production could be found all over every corner of the city, are still hindering the development of Jingdezhen ceramic export trade in the increasingly fierce competition of contemporary society. Researching on the export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe has profound historical and cultural significance, and the author also hope to further analyze the history and present situation for the export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe and put forward some reasonable suggestions.This thesis is based on the local investigation in Jingdezhen, and using the methods of literature research, comparative analysis, combination of qualitative analysis and quantitative analysis, trying to restore the situation of Jingdezhen ceramic export trade to Europe since Song Dynasty, the whole thesis is divided into five parts.Chapter one is the introduction. This part mainly elaborates the background that Jingdezhen ceramic had ever been extremely active in the European market with its unique style and a myth that could not be broken, but since 1990s, due to the impact of market competitiveness, new technology, innovation ability, resource endowments and some other factors, the export volume and attractiveness of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe has gradually descent. Besides, there are not many articles investigate, analyze and research on the current situation of Jingdezhen ceramic industry at home and abroad, and the government and industry associations in Jingdezhen have insufficient in strategy and supervision in the export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic; What’s more, this chapter illuminates the research significance, namely research on export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe:1. has profound cultural value and historical significance; 2. is benefit for exploring the dissemination and influence of Chinese civilization in Europe; 3. avails to achieve better "going out" for Jingdezhen ceramic industry. Some related concepts of the export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe have been analyzed in this chapter, such as the origin of the name of "Jingdezhen", the evolution of pottery and porcelain, the brief analysis of kaolin, types of Jingdezhen ceramic and some core economic indicators. In addition, this chapter reviews the related literature at home and abroad, introduces the research findings on the export trade of Jingdezhen ceramics by some domestic and foreign experts, scholars and researchers. Then the structure, innovations, research methods and deficiencies are introduced in this chapter.The second chapter is to analyze the basic situation of Jingdezhen ceramic. This part is mainly by comparing the enterprise brands between Jingdezhen ceramics and Foshan ceramics in recent nine years, which come into an inclusion that most of the top ten ceramic brands in China are Foshan ceramics, although Jingdezhen ceramics have sound regional brand, but its corporate brands almost have no competitiveness; Comparing with the enterprise size between Jingdezhen ceramic and Foshan ceramic in 2014, we can find that Jingdezhen ceramic industries are in small scale and scattered production, most of the ceramic for daily use are in lower-grade, few of them are in superior quality. As the quality is not guaranteed and the standard is not unified, the credibility of the sales declined, many customers turn to other ceramic manufacturing areas; Then, comparing the type of products between Jingdezhen ceramics and Foshan ceramics, conclusions can be gotten that Jingdezhen has obvious agglomeration effect, which is suitable for the development of ceramic creative and cultural industry, however, the limitation of urban development restricts the development of ceramic industry to a certain extent in Jingdezhen. In addition, this chapter analyzes the present ceramic production and export situation in Jingdezhen by using some economic indicators such as dependence on foreign trade and trade competitiveness index, Jingdezhen ceramic output in recent nine years, fixed-asset investment, number of enterprises and practitioners, ceramic tax revenue, ceramic export volume and proportion of ceramic exports.The third chapter is to analyze the situation of Jingdezhen ceramic exports to Europe based on historical perspective of Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing Dynasty and modern times and perspective of ancient books, salvaged shipwrecks, missionaries, and collections in some European countries. In Song Dynasty, both of the famous kilns in the north and south of China competed with each other, and created bluish white porcelain based on the celadon and white porcelain in Five Dynasties, part of the ceramics in Jingdezhen exported to Europe. In Yuan Dynasty, Jingdezhen created another kind of magnificent porcelain named egg-white glaze ware in addition to the blue and white porcelain, and gradually became the center of the porcelain manufacturing. A large number of blue and white porcelain and some other ceramics from Jingdezhen spread to Europe through the Eurasian continent and the Maritime Porcelain Road; In Ming Dynasty, Portugal, Spain and Dutch raised their sails sailed to the East and imported a large number of Jingdezhen ceramics, from 1602 tol682, the Dutch East India Company bought 16 million pieces of ceramics from China, which most of them were Jingdezhen ceramics; In Qing Dynasty, more European countries include the United Kingdom, France, Denmark, Holland and so on, came to China and imported Jingdezhen ceramics. According to statistics, during the peak period of overseas trade in China, nearly half of the export Chinese ceramics were Jingdezhen ceramics. In Modern Times, due to the influence of Britain’s economic plunder and customs control during the period of the Opium War, the impoverished situation of new founded China and the Great Leap Forward, the export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe was in struggling, only a little part of the ceramics exported to the Eastern Europe market, until China restored the lawful status in the United Nations in 1971 and the reform and opening up in 1978, the export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic had a new development; In the recent nine years, the development of export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe isn’t ideal, especially after 2010, with the tightening export value of Jingdezhen ceramic, the export value of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe had also reduced. In addition, this chapter is to analyze the situation of Jingdezhen ceramic export to Europe by the records of ancient books such as Jingdezhen ceramics, The Dutch East India Company and porcelain, etc., the data about the archaeological discovery of ceramics underwater the shipwrecks during 1976 to 2003, the data of European missionaries such as HongxuYin, Matteo Ricci, Ruowang Tang, etc., and the data of collections in some European countries such as the British Museum, the German Cassell Museum, the Chinese Palace of Brussels in Belgium, etc..The fourth chapter is to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of the export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe nowadays. Through the comparison of the enterprise brand, the corporate scale and the type of the products between Jingdezhen ceramic and Foshan ceramic, and the actual situation of Jingdezhen ceramics export trade to Europe since Song Dynasty, avails to analyze the advantages and disadvantages of Jingdezhen ceramics export to Europe at present; The advantages including the general advantages such as the unique natural resources and geographical environment, good reputation of regional brand and ceramic education, and the unique advantages for European such as:many professional ceramic markets and European style ceramics, Jingdezhen ceramics are popular among Europeans; The disadvantages include internal and external factors, internal factors such as: industry association decentralization and government policy inefficiency, weak enterprise innovation ability, improper management of resources and unreasonable industrial structure, the external factors are European antidumping measures, etc..The fifth chapter is on the basis of the above researches, and according to the problems and prospects of export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe, then put forward some reasonable suggestions in the perspective of government, industry associations, enterprises, industrial structure, resource management, target market, e-commerce and porcelain fair, etc.:1. Strengthen the functions of the government and industry associations, work out a good plan for ceramic export to Europe; 2. Strengthen the innovation ability of enterprises, build ceramic enterprises brand; 3. Optimize ceramic industrial structure and resource management; 4. Strengthen the market survey of the target country; 5. Vigorously develop the ceramic e-commerce; 6. Build Porcelain Fair platform. Jingdezhen government and ceramic enterprises should grasp the development opportunity of the Belt and Road, realize the prosperity and development of the export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe in this economic globalization, mechanization and networking society.Finally, through the research on export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe in the whole thesis, the analysis of advantages and existing problems of Jingdezhen ceramic export to Europe and recommendations, this thesis gets the following conclusions:first of all, since Song Dynasty, Jingdezhen ceramic began export to Europe, after the development of Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, Jingdezhen ceramic had become the imprint of the times and a symbol of ceramic culture. Research on this has profound historical significance and great cultural value. Secondly, the development of ceramic enterprise brand in Jingdezhen is not ideal since modern times, its ceramic industry challenged by Chaozhou ceramic, Foshan ceramic and some other ceramics, under the new historical opportunity of the Belt and Road, Jingdezhen should firmly grasp this opportunity, and prepare all aspects for develop the ceramic industry, reappear the glorious history of Jingdezhen ceramic in the world stage. What’s more, from the perspective of the export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe in recent times, Jingdezhen should try to strengthen the functions of the government and industry associations, enhance the innovation ability of enterprises, build their own ceramic enterprises brand, optimize ceramic industrial structure, vigorously develop the ceramic e-commerce and build the porcelain fair platform, improve the export trade of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe in all-around, and reconstruction the great attraction of Jingdezhen ceramic to Europe or even to the world.