NANCHANG, June 23 (Xinhua) -- French artist Camille Kami argued with a senior potter after she made a porcelain sculpture of a barefoot female.
The potter said the figurine should wear shoes, while Kami said her work was just like in a garden in a hot summer, so shoes were unnecessary.
"Contradictory ideas like this collide and deliver new creations here," said Kami, adding that it is the charm of Jingdezhen that has attracted her to settle down.
Jingdezhen, a small city in the mountains of east China's Jiangxi Province, is best known as China's porcelain capital. On the world stage, it is another word for China's quality ceramics.
Jingdezhen's history of ceramic-making dates back over 2,000 years. Its role as an official and royal kiln pushed its porcelain-making techniques to the highest in history.
As a migrant city luring worldwide craftsmen and selling porcelain overseas since ancient times, Jingdezhen has drawn global migrants like Kami with its inherent openness, diversity and inclusiveness, as well as its quality ceramics.
A graduate of Britain's Royal College of Art, Kami had moved between the Netherlands, Britain and Switzerland, before deciding to settle down in Jingdezhen in 2015.
Now speaking fluent Chinese, she sometimes draws inspiration from China's fairy tales and spices up with a French-style imagination.
"I've been here a couple of times before settling down, and every time I leave, it was like something powerful attracted me to come back," said Kami.
As one of the areas with the highest concentration of artists in China, Jingdezhen has over 30,000 migrants, known as "Jingpiaos" (people who come to Jingdezhen to pursue their dreams), including some 5,000 overseas "Jingpiaos" at the peak time from countries including the United States, France, Singapore and the Republic of Korea.
Having stayed in Jingdezhen for eight years, Allan Naymark has rented a farmhouse in the suburb as a ceramic studio.
The 32-year-old American named himself "Ni De Ming" in Chinese, which literally means "the brightness of clay."
"My porcelain dream has become brighter after arriving at the porcelain capital," Naymark said while explaining his Chinese name. He said that the complete handmade ceramic system in Jingdezhen that covers craftspeople, suppliers and equipment has enabled him to concentrate more on creation.
More than 10 km from downtown Jingdezhen lies the Sanbao international ceramic village, a cluster attracting ceramic fans from all over the world. A member of the International Academy of Ceramics, the village, with more than 6,000 square meters in size, has received nearly 10,000 international artists.
Li Wenying, manager of the village, remembers how she organized the reception of nearly 100 international artists in 2004. These artists from the United States, Britain, Canada and other countries visited to take part in Jingdezhen's millennium ceremony.
"Back then, the village had nothing but shabby farmhouses," Li recalled. "At that time, I was alone with eight students from Jingdezhen Ceramics University for the reception. I was so tired that my voice got hoarse."
Twenty years on, Li still appreciates the opportunity. "Even though I can't make porcelains, I could introduce Jingdezhen's ceramic culture and history in English. That's how Sanbao became known, which has made me what I am today," she said. ■
