Local Manufactures and Early Modern Global Connections

Dr Anne Gerritsen (Project Director)

Dr Stephen McDowall (Research Fellow)

Amy Evans (Global History & Culture Centre Secretary)

Between 1300 and 1800, ceramics made in Jingdezhen 景德鎮 (Jiangxi, southern China) were sold across the globe. We can follow the journeys of these objects and trace their impact on local styles and patterns of consumption, yet we know little about the impact of this global trade on Jingdezhen itself. We know that Jingdezhen produced ceramics for many different markets, but how was knowledge about these markets communicated? Did this global engagement lead to transformations in local culture? This multi-disciplinary project aims to bring together scholars working in different disciplines and in different geographical contexts. In this way, we can enhance our understanding of the global history of Jingdezhen itself, and China's position in the early modern world.

Latest Global Jingdezhen Events:

'The Mongols & the Ming: New Approaches to the Fourteenth Century', Workshop at the University of Warwick, 10-11 June 2011.

'The Wanderings of a Chinese Lady: Plates, Parasols & Global Design in the Eighteenth Century', Public Lecture by Professor Christiaan Jörg (University of Leiden), British Museum, 4 March 2011.

'Global Art? China and Europe in Early Modern Material & Visual Culture', Global History & Culture Centre Workshop, 25 February 2011.

'Chinese Ceramics & the Early Modern World', Exhibition of Ceramics at the Museum of East Asian Art (MEAA), Bath, 4 September 2010 - 6 March 2011.

'Pots, Power & Beauty: Porcelain and Desire in the Early Modern World', An Evening with Lars Tharp (Antiques Roadshow) in Bath, 6 September 2010.

IAS Visiting Fellow: Professor Dorothy Ko (Columbia University) at Warwick, 24-28 May 2010.

'Cultures of Ceramics in Global History, 1300 to 1800', International Conference at the University of Warwick, 22-24 April 2010.

'Jingdezhen's China: New Approaches to the Material Culture of Ceramics', Panel Presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Asian Studies (AAS), Philadelphia, 25-28 March 2010.