Vascodagama Online Journal

Beijing, China – November 10, 2026 – From November 5 to 6, the special cultural exchange exhibition of the 7th World Media Summit was held in Beijing. As one of its highlights, the “Blanc de Chine – Dehua Porcelain” Exhibition was hosted at the Beijing Hotel. Under the theme “Porcelain Connects the World, Media Bridges Civilizations,” this cultural exchange event brought the millennium-old porcelain charm of Dehua, the “World Porcelain City,” into the view of global mainstream media. Through the warmth and elegance of white porcelain and the refinement of exquisite craftsmanship, it presented a moving story of cross-civilizational dialogue bridging mountains and seas.

A Porcelain Legacy Spanning a Millennium: From Song-Yuan Sails to the “World Porcelain City”

On the morning of November 5, visitors from around the world gathered at the exhibition booths in the Nuo Jin Writers’ Bar at the Beijing Hotel, marveling at the exhibits. (Photo courtesy of the event organizers)

“Is this ivory, or something else?” “Is the peacock’s skirt made of fabric?” Upon learning that these objects—”white as snow, smooth as jade”—were all white porcelain, many were astonished and leaned in for a closer look. These exquisite white porcelain pieces, forged from clay and kiln fire, all hail from Dehua, a millennium-old porcelain capital on the southeastern coast of China.

Dehua is under the administration of Quanzhou, a World Heritage city. Its porcelain-making heritage can be traced back to the proto-celadon stage of the Xia and Shang dynasties, with kiln fires burning for over 3,700 years. Dehua Kiln was a major export porcelain production area along the Maritime Silk Road during the Song and Yuan dynasties. In the Ming Dynasty, Dehua white porcelain reached its artistic peak, with its body and glaze as smooth as congealed fat and pure as jade. It was given the exclusive European name “BLANC DE CHINE,” establishing its lofty status in the history of world ceramics. In 2021, the Dehua Kiln sites were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as important heritage sites of “Quanzhou: Emporium of the World in Song-Yuan China.”

Among the artifacts recovered from the Southern Song “Nanhai No. 1” shipwreck, Dehua kiln porcelain accounts for about one-third. The Southern Song shipwreck at Huaguang Reef No. 1 in the Xisha Islands yielded over 2,000 pieces of Dehua kiln celadon and white porcelain. The Qing Dynasty Tek Sing shipwreck yielded 350,000 pieces of blue-and-white porcelain, mostly from Dehua kilns. Together with collections in more than 40 renowned museums worldwide, Dehua porcelain silently records the moving stories of mutual exchange and mutual learning among civilizations between China and the world over thousands of years.

Today, Dehua’s ceramic industry still maintains strong export-oriented vitality. Dehua is home to over 4,500 ceramic enterprises, with products sold to more than 190 countries and regions worldwide. The exquisite white porcelain showcased at the 7th World Media Summit carries not only a history of dialogue between China and foreign countries spanning a millennium, but also a contemporary story that is still unfolding.

A Craft Inherited Through the Ages: From Traditional Techniques to Contemporary Expression

“Dehua white porcelain is very exquisite, and these works are excellent!” exclaimed Jean Musy, President of the Foreign Press Association of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, after carefully viewing the exhibits. This exhibition selected diverse works, including traditional porcelain sculptures, modern art porcelain, and aesthetic daily-use porcelain. Works by masters such as Lian Deli, Chen Mingliang, Su Xianzhong, Lin Lingyue, Xu Jianyong, and Li Qianjin were on display, collectively demonstrating the vitality of the national intangible cultural heritage “Dehua porcelain firing technique”—revealing both millennial roots and contemporary breakthroughs.

Jean Musy, President of the Foreign Press Association of Switzerland and Liechtenstein, carefully examines the work “Myth.” (Photo courtesy of the event organizers)

The work “Myth” pushes the thickness of porcelain garments to the extreme based on Dehua’s traditional “thin-body” craft, using the national invention patent “high-toughness thin-body porcelain garment” technique. The plain-robed classical goddess’s garments flow gracefully, with every strand of hair vividly rendered, achieving the stunning effect of “looking like gauze from afar, porcelain up close.” “Quanzhou Nanyin” overcomes the difficulty of instrument firing deformation through the technique of “firing separately and then firing together,” freezing the moment of performance of the “living fossil of music” in porcelain.

Beyond technique, the beauty of the material is equally praiseworthy. Ming Dynasty Dehua white porcelain has a lustrous, bright glaze, white as congealed fat, hence the names “lard white” and “ivory white.” Today, “lard white” remains a highly recognizable porcelain category within Dehua white porcelain. “Universe in a Book” uses this warm, fat-like texture to shape the seated posture of a zhuangyuan (top scholar), crystallizing the elegant temperament of “ten years of hard study” into a tangible image of the Eastern literati.

At the intersection of Chinese aesthetics and popular culture, Dehua white porcelain is entering contemporary life with a lighter posture—from “Chinese Style – Panda Family Banquet Porcelain,” which integrates Heraeus’s 24K gold-stacking technique from Germany, to “Journey to the West · Eating Melons,” which reconstructs a classic IP with overglaze colors. Traditional porcelain art continues to grow in daily utensils and popular expression.

At the exhibition, Dehua white porcelain postcards prepared by the organizers were highly popular, with postcards featuring works such as “Myth” quickly snapped up. The event also featured master craftsmanship demonstrations and interactive sessions, allowing overseas guests to experience the exquisite traditional techniques of Dehua porcelain up close.

“The pure, restrained, inclusive, and warm qualities of Dehua white porcelain give it a natural affinity in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural exchanges,” said Su Jishi, a master of arts and crafts from Fujian Province. “We hope to use visible, tangible cultural treasures to build bridges of mutual understanding among peoples, so that more people can learn about China and understand China through porcelain.”

One White Connecting the World: From Porcelain Sold Across the Seas to Mutual Learning Among Civilizations

Sisira Yapa, Director of the Editorial Department at Ceylon Associated Newspapers of Sri Lanka, views the white porcelain exhibits. (Photo courtesy of the event organizers)

The World Media Summit is known as the “Olympics of the media” and is an important high-end global platform for media exchange and cooperation. This year’s summit gathered nearly 500 representatives from nearly 330 mainstream media outlets, think tanks, government departments, and international organizations from 112 countries and regions around the world, under the theme “Media Mission and Cooperative Action in Intelligent Transformation.” The “Blanc de Chine – Dehua Porcelain” Exhibition leveraged the summit’s platform advantages, using “objects”—a simple yet language-transcending medium—to provide a warm and concrete expression for civilizational dialogue.

As an envoy of East-West cultural exchange, Dehua is committed to taking “Blanc de Chine” further and bringing its warm, jade-like Eastern aesthetics into homes around the world. In recent years, Dehua has completed the EU trademark registration for “Blanc de Chine” and laid out the Madrid International Trademark System. It has established 78 promotion and exhibition centers at home and abroad, with international touring exhibitions covering 28 countries and regions across five continents.

This year, riding the policy momentum of six government departments promoting the high-quality development of historical classic industries, Dehua, as a county at the forefront of national implementation, is reshaping the global competitiveness of this millennium-old classic industry through branding and internationalization strategies. In October, Dehua convened the Conference on the High-Quality Development of the Ceramic Historical Classic Industry, releasing a policy system of “one plan, one protection, three supplies, two cultivations,” and clarifying the path of fashionization, branding, and internationalization.

Looking back at a millennium of kiln fires, Dehua porcelain’s journey to the world relies both on the industry’s own strengthening and on civilizational dialogue through porcelain. The organizers of this exhibition expressed the hope that global media guests will feel the profound heritage of Chinese civilization in the warm, jade-like white porcelain, and that “Blanc de Chine,” an aesthetic symbol transcending language, will continue to shine with new brilliance in civilizational exchange and mutual learning.

About the 7th World Media Summit

The special cultural exchange exhibition of the 7th World Media Summit was held in Beijing, with the “Blanc de Chine – Dehua Porcelain” Exhibition hosted at the Beijing Hotel.

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Country: China
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