What makes Jingdezhen China's "porcelain capital"? What gives its newly inscribed UNESCO World Heritage site its enduring appeal? Cheng Linyao, a city-level inheritor of Jingdezhen's traditional blue-and-white porcelain painting, shares a deeply personal journey through her hometown and the living heritage that continues to shape it today.
"You either never come to Jingdezhen, or you'd keep coming back. Its charm can't be fully discovered in a single visit," said Cheng.
Porcelain is more than a symbol of Jingdezhen. It's the heartbeat of this city -- shaping its identity and the lives of those living along the winding Changjiang River.
More than 700 years ago, craftsmen here discovered the perfect blend of kaolin and porcelain stone, creating porcelain that could withstand firing at over 1,300 degrees Celsius without losing its shape.
In Jingdezhen, history is never just the past -- it lives alongside the present.
Home to just over 1.6 million people, this city lives and breathes ceramics. Around one in every ten residents works in the industry.
Here, centuries-old craftsmanship meets bold creativity, drawing ceramic enthusiasts from across China and around the world into a vibrant community like none other. At its peak, it included more than 5,000 foreigners. Porcelain is a language they all speak. It also sparks connections across cultures and distances.
Porcelain needs makers -- and the people who bring it to the world. Cheng's husband, Emrah Hakan Caliskan, is one of them. After years working in the ceramic trade, the Turkish ceramic businessman believes Jingdezhen porcelain stands apart from anything made elsewhere. "There's heart in it. There's time in it. Jingdezhen porcelain is truly exceptional. It's not an everyday object that you can easily replace," said Caliskan.
Innovation has always been part of Jingdezhen porcelain's story.
In a collaboration between Jingdezhen ceramics and toy company POP MART, the thousand-year-old ceramic tradition finds new life in designer toys.
For centuries, Jingdezhen's kilns have continued to evolve, yet traditional wood-fired kilns still endure -- because what burns inside them is more than just fire.
On July 25, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) added Jingdezhen Handicraft Porcelain Industry Sites to the World Heritage List.
On hearing the news, Cheng was moved to tears. "To us, Jingdezhen is home. But I believe its porcelain industry heritage belongs to the whole world, to all of humanity," said Cheng.
