Creatives find their muse in small town culture

In Zhushan district, where many Jingpiao reside, ceramic art labor unions have been established along with other institutions aiming to provide diverse activities and services to Jingpiao from domestic and international backgrounds, enhancing their sense of belonging, Hu said.

In 2018, Liu came up with the idea of designing and creating her own ceramic art to sell online.

"I started my career in making and selling self-designed ceramics with my friends in Jingdezhen. Over time, our team has grown to include more than a dozen people," she said.

Liu now has over 240,000 followers on her Weibo account, and her Taobao store is a recognized heritage store for ceramic aesthetics.

Her store's best-selling item is a light yellow osmanthus-shaped ceramic tea set, which sells at about 600 yuan, with hundreds of sets sold monthly.

In the future, Liu wants to spread awareness of Jingdezhen and its exquisite ceramics to more people worldwide.

"I spent a few months in Kyoto, Japan, last spring and discovered that even Japanese tea masters and foreigners have limited knowledge about Jingdezhen due to insufficient people-to-people exchanges. They only recognize some tableware and large jars displayed in museums."

"I want to introduce Jingdezhen and ceramics here to Japanese people and would like to hold an exhibition in Tokyo this year, if possible, to showcase Jingdezhen ceramics and the process of making ceramics."

"Jingdezhen should and must be seen by the world."