China De La Vega, an Australian potter and painter, enjoys life and work in Jingdezhen. Zhang Hao / China Daily

'Traditional cowgirl'

Preserving the ancient traditions

Jingdezhen raises porcelain standard

De La Vega's studio is an old house, which she rents for 4,000 yuan ($642) a year, beside a ceramics works. She repaired the leaking roof and put in a skylight to allow sunlight to flood the room. While she is busy creating, her 2-year-old son attends a local kindergarten.

In one part of the studio, she was soaking pieces of broken porcelain, which she had polished into floral shapes. She plans to use the shards and copper wire to make a large porcelain bouquet - her artistic "signature" - that will feature in her forthcoming exhibition in Sydney.

De La Vega's Argentinean father named her "China", which she said means "traditional cowgirl". "But in English it means both porcelain and the country, so my friends say I was destined to work in China with porcelain," she said.

Yuk Kan Yeung, a 54-year-old ceramic artist, regards Jingdezhen as almost a holy place. An employee of the famous Gallery Terra Delft in the Netherlands, Yeung is working as an artist in residence at the Sanbao Ceramic Art Institute, a private art center in a suburb of Jingdezhen, for four and half weeks to improve her skills.

"Delft is also a city with a sophisticated ceramics tradition, but nowhere can compete with Jingdezhen. Every potter knows Jingdezhen, and every one of them wants to come here."