https://www.scmp.com/rss/330692/feed en https://assets.i-scmp.com/static/img/icons/scmp-meta-1200x630.png https://www.scmp.com Yuet Tung China Works is Hong Kong’s first and last hand-painted porcelain factory. For over 90 years, it has specialized in painting Guangcai porcelain, a 300-year-old craft unique to Guangzhou Province. We visited Joseph Tso, the third-generation owner of Yuet Tung to learn more about what makes the art so unique, and what it takes to run his family business. https://www.scmp.com/culture/first-and-last-hand-painted-porcelain-factory-hong-kong/article/3147467?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/first-and-last-hand-painted-porcelain-factory-hong-kong/article/3147467?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 03 Sep 2021 08:02:02 +0000 Ever since Grace Young can remember, once a year on Lunar New Year’s Eve in San Francisco her mother would carefully take out her best china to use for the family reunion dinner – a feast including  white cut chicken, poached steel-head fish, stir-fried clams, lettuce wraps, glazed roast squab and bird’s nest soup. The china, now about 80 years old, still looks vibrant, each plate, bowl, spoon and platter hand-painted with a Chinese pattern of fruit such as peaches and phoenix eye fruit, birds... https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3124951/american-chinese-familys-classic-canton-porcelain-finds-new?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/arts-culture/article/3124951/american-chinese-familys-classic-canton-porcelain-finds-new?utm_source=rss_feed Thu, 11 Mar 2021 21:15:15 +0000 This week, an Amazon listing for an “antique fruit basket” is making the rounds on the internet...because it isn’t a fruit basket. The product in question is actually a Chinese chamber pot that was used in homes before modern plumbing became widely available. It’s also used as a spittoon—that is, you hock a loogie into it while smoking. There were multiple listings for this portable potty/fruit basket, all of which have since been deleted, but thanks to the Wayback Machine, you can view one of... https://www.scmp.com/culture/chinese-porcelain-potty-sold-amazon-antique-fruit-basket/article/3123218?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/chinese-porcelain-potty-sold-amazon-antique-fruit-basket/article/3123218?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 26 Feb 2021 07:13:01 +0000 The floodwaters arrived so quickly in China’s “porcelain capital” Jingdezhen that Yu Ciqiong had just hours to save her business. As soon as she heard the city might be inundated, Yu dashed to the factory while her husband rushed to their shop to shore up its defenses. The couple and their staff worked all day, moving plates, teapots, cups and other exquisite items to higher shelves and floors.  But, when the water came – via a tributary of the swollen Yangtze River running through the city in... https://www.scmp.com/society/flooding-chinas-porcelain-capital-misfortune-piling-us/article/3093563?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/society/flooding-chinas-porcelain-capital-misfortune-piling-us/article/3093563?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 17 Jul 2020 09:55:26 +0000 Founded in the 1890s, Wing On Wo & Co. is one of the oldest stores in New York’s Chinatown, and one of the last that still specializes in Chinese porcelain. What makes the shop stand out from, say, a supermarket that sells plates and bowls is a singular focus on quality and unique patterns. Some of the ceramics are so rare that they can’t even be found in China anymore. The shop persists as an anomaly in a gentrifying neighborhood, where trendy restaurants and cocktail bars are a common... https://www.scmp.com/culture/how-wing-wo-gets-its-porcelain-china-new-york/article/3002889?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/culture/how-wing-wo-gets-its-porcelain-china-new-york/article/3002889?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 22 Mar 2019 09:26:01 +0000 These bowls, called linglong (玲珑) porcelain, used to be everywhere in the West. And they all come from this one town in China. We visited one of the last factories that still makes this style of blue and white porcelain, and deciphered the symbols that cover the bowl. https://www.scmp.com/videos/inside-factory-makes-those-blue-chinese-bowls-you-see-everywhere/article/3000527?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/videos/inside-factory-makes-those-blue-chinese-bowls-you-see-everywhere/article/3000527?utm_source=rss_feed Fri, 18 Jan 2019 11:13:48 +0000 It’s never too late to achieve your dreams. Yu Ermei, 88, has spent the last decade building herself a palace out of porcelain. “Everyone told me, ‘You shouldn’t do it, you’re too old. But I said, ‘I have do it. Don’t stop me from doing what I want to do.’” https://www.scmp.com/travel/88-year-old-woman-who-built-herself-porcelain-palace/article/3000315?utm_source=rss_feed https://www.scmp.com/travel/88-year-old-woman-who-built-herself-porcelain-palace/article/3000315?utm_source=rss_feed Tue, 15 Jan 2019 15:07:52 +0000