Pottery craft breathes new life into village

In a village in North China's Hebei province, the ancient craft of pottery is bringing new opportunities to the local community.

People in Jingxing county, Shijiazhuang, have been making porcelain for over 1,400 years. Today, this tradition is not only alive, but also at the heart of the village's revival.

The quiet morning in Nanhengkou village is always broken by the sound of spinning pottery wheels. This is from Jingxing Kiln, one of Hebei's four famous historical kilns.

Du Jiangang is busy teaching a visitor how to shape clay on a wheel at the Jingxing Kiln Cultural Research Association Study Base."Let the clay move with your hands," he said patiently. His workshop is full of people eager to learn the old craft.

Du, 54, did not study porcelain making in school. "I learned it because I love my hometown's history," he said.

He followed archaeologists to old kiln sites, collecting broken pieces to understand the lost techniques.

Gradually, he mastered the traditional way of baking pottery in wood-fired kilns. But he also keeps up with the times. Now he uses modern electric or gas kilns for more precise and cleaner production. "Before, we had to watch the fire for three days and nights," Du said. "Now, technology helps us control the temperature perfectly," he said, adding that the glaze color can be more stable and more environmentally friendly.

For him, the real success is seeing young people in his classes. "This is the hope for the continuation of this tradition," he said.

In another room, 61-year-old Ma Yanjun carefully smooths the edge of a ceramic mold. Coming from a family of potters, Ma has done this work for decades.

His father was a master in an old State-owned factory. "He told me that clay and glaze have their own character. You must respect it," Ma said. The lesson has guided his entire life.

From the age of 18, Ma worked at the factory for three decades until it closed in 2012.

"Back then, I thought my skills might become useless," he said.

But when the village decided to rebuild its porcelain culture, he was called back.

In 2018, a "Porcelain Water Town" project — the development of a scenic area centered on the kiln's culture — was launched.

After returning to his hometown, Ma became the backbone of the village by leading the restoration of the traditional production techniques of Jingxing Kiln.