China News Service, Guizhou, Pingtang, October 3rd: Yazhou pottery meets "Generation Z": the inheritance of more than 600 years of skills and innovation
Author Zhou Yanling
During the National Day holiday in 2022, Guizhou Pingtang Yazhou Pottery Cultural Industrial Park welcomed many tourists. There was an endless stream of tourists visiting the Yazhou Pottery Museum and experiencing the production of Yazhou Pottery.
The 23-year-old Yazhou pottery artist Zhang Shengbo not only rushes to make orders, but also teaches tourists to make Yazhou pottery. Looking at the "pottery mud" in his hand, he thinks this is the best wealth of "guard" artists in Yazhou Town. .
As the tenth generation successor of Zhang's Ceramics, Zhang Shengbo has been dealing with ceramics since he was a child and has now become a provincial-level ceramic designer in Guizhou.
During the production interval, he said that from the initial adobe making, Yazhou pottery still uses traditional manual techniques, and relies on the hands of the craftsmen to outline the patterns and polish the lines.
The picture shows Zhang Shengbo making Yazhou pottery.
Photo by Zhou Yanling
Yazhou Town, located in Dashanli, is a town that is hard to find on the map, but Yazhou Pottery, one of the top ten famous pottery in China, has a history of more than 600 years.
The shape of Yazhou pottery is natural and simple, crystal clear and smooth. Its unique "ice cracks" and "kiln changes" fired by wood kilns have a strong charm of unearthed cultural relics.
Due to the accelerated process of industrialization and the impact of mechanical products on traditional handicrafts, the once brilliant Yazhou pottery began to decline in the 1980s and 1990s.
In Zhang Shengbo's memory, when he was a child, there were only two villages still making Yazhou pottery. It was not until 2008 that the firing technique of Yazhou pottery was included in China's national intangible cultural heritage list, and the number of pottery people gradually increased.
The picture shows the Yazhou pottery work made by Zhang Shengbo.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Six years ago, Zhang Shengbo formally followed his parents to learn how to make Yazhou pottery, including soil extraction, mud processing, molding, decoration, glazing and kiln.
At the beginning, in order to squeeze the air out of the mud ball, Zhang Shengbo's arms were often so sore that he couldn't lift it up.
In 2017, Zhang Shengbo's first tooth boat pottery work was born. It was a cartoon-style water cup. After making more than 20 water cups, they were finally fired in a wood kiln, and 7 of them were successful. "The water cups were all bought by friends, although The money is not much, but the moment I sell it, I feel that all the hard work is worth it.”
The picture shows the Yazhou pottery work made by Zhang Shengbo's grandfather.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Zhang Shengbo's father and uncle are both well-known masters of Yazhou pottery craftsmanship in Guizhou, and his uncle Zhang Luqi was named a national intangible inheritor in 2017.
Compared with the previous generation who liked to add local folklore and national characteristics to their works, the Yazhou pottery works designed by Zhang Shengbo and his brother have bright colors and simple lines, and pay more attention to the aesthetics of modern people.
On the wooden frame of Zhang Shengbo's workshop, there are not only alien animals, dragon-mouthed plum opening pots, eagle-faced vases and other tooth boat pottery works, but also "new Chinese" style vases, as well as various simple and fashionable utensils and home furnishings .
Zhang Shengbo said: "I hope our generation can 'encircle' the hearts of young people, so that the 600-year-old Yazhou pottery can be better passed down."
The picture shows tourists experiencing the making of Yazhou pottery.
Photo by Zhou Yanling
Zhang Shengbo feels that the aesthetics of each generation of young people will be different. The old artists in the past used to make daily necessities, and now this generation hopes to integrate culture into the works of Yazhou Pottery. "Because girls look good in cheongsam, they specially made them. For a cheongsam-style vase, it took more than a month from design to delivery from the kiln."
Yazhou pottery has always been represented by green glaze. In the process of inheritance, Zhang Shengbo found that many shapes are not suitable for green glaze, just like a piece of clothing cannot be worn by everyone.
For this reason, Zhang Shengbo will try to do some innovations every time he is glazed, such as using grass and wood ash glaze on the tea set.
The picture shows the Yazhou pottery tea set and ornaments.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee
In order to let the outside world know about the Yazhou pottery hidden in the mountains, Zhang Shengbo often posts the production process and various finished products of the Yazhou pottery on social platforms.
Sometimes, he also broadcasts the firing process of the firewood kiln and the opening of the kiln through his mobile phone. Netizens can place an order in the live broadcast room to buy the Yazhou pottery that has just come out of the kiln.
Inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, in Zhang Shengbo's view, is not only to inherit the skills of intangible cultural heritage, but also to inherit the spirit of innovation of the ancestors.
At present, Yazhou pottery has more than 200 types of various types of vases, not only practical tea sets, but also various types of vases with collection and ornamental value.
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