In Jingdezhen, a city in Jiangxi Province long known as China's porcelain capital, one of its newest landmarks looks as if it has emerged directly from a kiln — a giant white bowl-shaped building standing in Changnanli, a ceramic trendy-toy district. Inside, ancient craft is being reimagined for a new global audience.
On the walls are characters from some of the world's most recognizable animation franchises, including Nezha, Transformers, and One Piece. At the center of one exhibition hall stands Miffy — the Dutch cartoon rabbit familiar to many as a childhood school supply staple — dressed in a blue-and-white porcelain pattern. It is part of Jingdezhen's first co-branded ceramic toy created with the Miffy brand.
Small, cute, and highly collectible, it also points to a larger experiment: how a city built on imperial kilns and export porcelain is learning to speak the language of contemporary pop culture.
Craft as Identity
"Ceramic itself has unique beauty in material and craftsmanship," said Yang Mingjun, curator of the Jingdezhen Youjian Dongfang trend art IP center. "It is not only an artifact, but also a carrier of culture."
Unlike most trendy toys, which are typically made of plastic or resin, ceramic toys depend heavily on firing techniques, handcrafting, and finishing. Their appeal, Yang explains, lies not only in cuteness or collectability, but in tactile quality, craftsmanship, and cultural depth.
Porcelain-making in Jingdezhen is known for its precision and complexity. The traditional process involves around 72 procedures — from preparing clay and glaze to shaping, painting, decorating, and firing. Each step depends on the one before it, carrying the accumulated knowledge of generations of artisans.
That devotion to craft helped make Jingdezhen porcelain a world commodity long before globalization had a name.
A History of Global Trade
In the city's Export Porcelain Museum, one object makes this clear: a Qing Dynasty porcelain shaving plate from the reign of Emperor Qianlong. It has a broad rim, a folded form, and a crescent-shaped notch cut into one side. The pattern around the notch remains complete, suggesting it was designed that way from the beginning.
The plate was made for European aristocratic men. When shaving, a man could rest his chin in the notch, allowing beard trimmings to fall neatly into the plate while he looked at the painted image inside.
"It shows that Jingdezhen artisans were already responding directly to international demand," said Li Jing, who oversees the museum. "With superb craftsmanship and an open attitude, they produced global commodities for the age of world trade and even helped shape European tastes at the time."
From porcelain discovered in the Tang Dynasty-era Black Stone shipwreck, to widely traded Ming Dynasty Kraak ceramics, to Qing Dynasty pieces customized for European markets — including armorial porcelain, shaving plates, and duck-shaped vessels — Jingdezhen's work has reached Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas for over a thousand years.
Today's ceramic toys are less a break from history than a continuation of it: adapting Chinese porcelain to the tastes and demands of a global audience. The difference is only the audience itself. Instead of European nobles ordering customized tableware, today's buyers are collectors, animation fans, and young consumers drawn to characters, limited editions, and cultural crossover.
The Business of Beautiful Things
Jingdezhen has established a creative design hub and partnered with major animation companies to build a ceramic trendy town. A mature business model — from matching demand to creative design and product launch — has taken shape, benefiting over 5,000 ceramic artists and hundreds of ceramic enterprises.
One standout example is Chentian Ceramics, the only ceramic co-branded partner of Chinese toy brand Pop Mart. Using traditional techniques — including brocaded decoration, enamel, gold tracing, and Langhong red glaze — the company has developed a range of collectible toys.
When a ceramic version of Molly, one of Pop Mart's best-known characters, went on sale, 40,000 orders were placed in just two seconds. Chentian has since expanded into more than 30 products across six major series.
But the crossover has not been easy. One limited-edition Molly figure, made using a traditional brocaded decoration technique, was priced at 14,000 yuan (around US$2,000). Only 199 pieces were released worldwide, and they sold out immediately. Yet the figure's shape — a heavy head on a lighter body — made it prone to collapsing during high-temperature firing. Out of 2,000 pieces attempted, only about 10 percent survived as finished products.
"The cost of this collaboration was very high," said Xu Wan, general manager of Chentian Ceramics, who comes from a family of porcelain makers. The project took two years of experimentation and more than 20 rounds of sampling. Xu said she did not charge upfront fees for the early development work. For her, the effort was about something larger than a single product.
"I hope more people can get to know Jingdezhen through new ways," she said.
A City Reinventing Itself
Today, Jingdezhen is home to more than 3,400 inheritors of intangible cultural heritage — the largest number in China in the ceramic category. More than 100,000 young creators have arrived to start businesses or pursue artistic work, alongside tens of thousands of ceramic enthusiasts from over 50 countries, forming a community often described as "Jingpiao," or Jingdezhen drifters.
For Yang, even the name of his center — Youjian Dongfang, or "encountering the East through glaze" — reflects an ambition that feels as old as the kilns themselves.
Centuries ago, Jingdezhen porcelain traveled the world as a luxury good. Today, it is finding new travelers in collectors, animators, and fans — one ceramic toy at a time.