Marco Polo Holdings Co., Ltd.: Modern technology lights up cultural building ceramics

Marco Polo's self-developed curved rock slab has a maximum bending curve of 120 degrees. Economic Daily reporter Zheng Yang photographed

The ceramic mural "Red Li Piaoxiang" displayed at the International Conference Center of Dongguan State Guest House. Photographed by Zheng Yang, a reporter of this newspaper

Today, we often encounter ceramic art murals in urban architecture: from the quaint "Green Mountains and Green Waters" at Qianmen Station of the Beijing Subway, to the elegant "Fuchun Mountain Residence Map" in Guangzhou Baiyun Airport, to the picture scrolls showing the city's fireworks in the hotel lobby... The murals by the marco polo cultural ceramic craftsmen team bring a unique artistic enjoyment.

Years ago, it was unthinkable to encounter art on architectural ceramics. Huang Jianping, chairman of Marco Polo Holdings Co., Ltd., still remembers that in Foshan, the "pottery capital of the southern country", the industrial ceramics factory where he graduated was snubbed, while the visitors to the art ceramic factory next door were endless, and the lively envy of others. Architectural ceramics and artistic ceramics, separated by a wall, do not communicate with each other.

A seed sprouted from Huang Jianping's heart: Can we break this wall and let the artistic ceramics of Yangchun Baixue enter thousands of households through architectural ceramics? He came to Dongguan with this seed and opened the exploration of "the art of architectural ceramics and the popularization of art ceramics".

Find a competitive advantage from the thousand-year-old pottery culture

"For the real is suitable, only the new is beautiful." Walking into the Marco Polo headquarters in Gaobu Town, Dongguan, 8 vigorous characters come into view, telling the concept of the enterprise.

Marco Polo was not born with a silver spoon. When Huang Jianping took over the company, which had been transformed from a collective enterprise to a private and insolvent company, he could not even pay his salary. With the belief of making "cultural tiles", in the early days of entrepreneurship, the company worked intensively on antique tiles, and began to practice brand operation in 1996, and "Marco Polo Tiles" was born.

How can we have a unique cultural gene? In 2002, Chen Fucheng, an artist known as the "first person to calligraphy with knives and pens", was invited to Dongguan to create, and when Huang Jianping saw a tile transformed into a work of art by the hand of a master, he had a bright idea and found an opportunity. He spent 30 million yuan to build the China Architectural Ceramics Museum, and introduced the art of knife and pen calligraphy and painting of Chen Fucheng, Yang Xiaoguang and other masters, and developed a unique series of cultural ceramics products.

More than 10 years ago, 30 million yuan was a huge amount of money for Marco Polo, and a private enterprise spent so much money to collect cultural relics and build a museum, outsiders could not understand it, and there was no lack of controversy among the company's senior management.

"Chinese brands do not lack technology, what they lack is cultural power." Over the years, Huang Jianping has tirelessly explained the original intention of insisting on building the museum, "The museum has given us our own platform, allowing art ceramics and architectural ceramics to integrate and collide here, and to find innovative inspiration at the intersection of disciplines, and knife and pen carving is a clever means of realization."

Zhu Hongyu, director of the China Architectural Ceramics Museum and general manager of Aesthetic Culture Ceramics Co., Ltd., introduced that relying on a knife and pen carving team of masters, designers and craftsmen formed by the museum, we have continuously introduced cultural innovation achievements to the market, which has greatly enhanced the added value of products, "For example, the original production process of the Forbidden City Golden Brick is very expensive, there is 'one or two gold bricks', we use modern technology to restore the ancient gold brick technology, and have developed a series of products." For example, the city wall tiles are printed with inscriptions such as chronology, and we were inspired to create an invisible traceability code for each tile, which can be traced back to the squad leader at the time of production with a sweep of the code, ensuring quality."

The innovative inspiration drawn from the millennium pottery culture has given Marco Polo tiles a broader market space. "Our products are used in Beijing Daxing Airport, Shanghai World Expo Park, Dunhuang Silk Road Cultural And Expo Convention and Exhibition Center and other projects." Zhu Hongyu said.

Industrial science and technology support the popularization of art ceramics

Young craftsmen display flowing knife and pencil calligraphy, and the soft and dense bricks under the knife show the scientific and technological power behind cultural innovation.

Marco Polo has always insisted on walking on two legs of cultural innovation and scientific and technological innovation. Huang Jianping is clear that to "graft" artistic ceramics to architectural ceramics, "popularization" is the real threshold, and behind it is inseparable from the support of modern industrial technology.

He told reporters that the cost of using traditional crafts to make ceramic murals is extremely high, first hand-patted clay boards, after ten days of shade drying, and then the molded porcelain plates are carried to the dragon kiln to be fired, a set of processes down, the human factor only accounts for 30%, and the yield rate is very low. Marco Polo skillfully combines traditional art with the advanced technology and materials of the modern ceramic industry, and the yield rate exceeds 90%, creating products that can enter thousands of households.

In order to overcome the core technology and occupy the commanding heights of industrial science and technology, Marco Polo set up a ceramic industry research institute, built a national laboratory, established a national master studio and technician workstation; encouraged all production areas and departments to "unveil the commander", set up a special group to carry out innovation research, stimulate the innovation vitality of employees; established in-depth industry-university-research cooperation with a number of universities, and joined hands with 16 enterprises to form a ceramic industry technology innovation alliance.

Give full play to the advantages of independent research and development, so that Marco Polo can connect culture at one end and lead the trend at the other. How can a rock slab bend? The reporter saw that the maximum bending curve of its newly developed curved rock slabs reached 120 degrees, expanding the application field of the rock slabs from walls and ground to almost all home spaces such as columns, domes and even countertops, cabinets, refrigerators, etc., becoming a "universal material"; at the same time, the AI random infinite pattern technology developed at the same time, using AI map guidance, can achieve the effect of continuous patterning and meet the aesthetic design needs.

In the Marco Polo exhibition hall, the reporter witnessed the various possibilities brought by high technology: the rock texture of nature is reproduced on the ceramic rock slab, and the price changes from ten thousand yuan per square meter to a thousand yuan level; on the ceramic bending tester, the Thickness of Marco Polo Granite, which is half the thickness of ordinary granite, has a compressive capacity that is twice as strong; the heating ceramic that can replace floor heating and the luminous ceramic with its own "night light" effect are eye-opening... Xu Xiaoyong, director of the marketing department of Marco Polo Holdings Marketing Center, introduced that the company launches hundreds of new products every year, and has applied for more than 1,000 national patents, and dozens of achievements have reached the international advanced level.

Last year, factors such as rising raw material prices made the ceramics industry face many difficulties, and Marco Polo empowered new products with new technologies and expanded new channels. At present, the digital and intelligent indicators of Marco Polo's five major global production bases have reached the international advanced level.

Re-walk the Silk Road with brand confidence

In 2021, the World Brand Lab assessed the brand value of "Marco Polo" to 63.758 billion yuan. "Practice has proved that only when the culture is strong can we have the right to speak and enhance the brand value." Huang Jianping said.

Marco Polo has long had the awareness of "casting a brand with culture". In 1996, he registered the "Marco Polo" trademark and became the earliest representative of the branding industry in the pottery industry; in 1998, Marco Polo tiles built the first brand store in the pottery industry; in 2007, the title of the CBA Shenzhen Marco Polo Basketball Team, creating a precedent in sports marketing in the home furnishing industry; in recent years, Marco Polo, in addition to carefully building museums, has also re-walked the Silk Road several times, launched the Marco Polo cultural heritage protection public welfare action, and injected deep cultural connotations into the brand.

In April 2017, Marco Polo's production base in Tennessee, USA, was officially put into operation, becoming the first Chinese ceramics company to open a factory in the United States, taking a solid step in brand internationalization.

"Foreigners say that our Silk Road is very cattle, and exchanged mud for gold and silver. Now Chinese ceramics in the international market does not have a world famous brand, Marco Polo 'going out' is to create a world brand, reshape the glory of Chinese ceramics. Huang Jianping said. Today, Marco Polo tiles have thousands of stores around the world, and their products sell well in more than 130 countries and regions.

"Due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, we have also encountered difficulties in recruiting workers in the United States, but we have never regretted our original choice. Now many countries are more and more yearning for Chinese culture, and Chinese brands must believe in the power of culture. Stick to it, we are confident that Chinese ceramics will once again stand on the world stage. Huang Jianping said. (Economic Daily reporter Zheng Yang)