■According to 2023 statistics, there has been a net inflow of population in Jingdezhen in the past 10 years, and there are currently more than 60,000 people in Jingdezhen. Correspondingly, most of the fourth-tier cities in central China showed a net outflow trend
■In the eyes of most people, after thousands of years of accumulation, a complete and mature ceramic industry chain, a very low threshold entrepreneurial environment and a comfortable living atmosphere, Jingdezhen is the place to attract young people
The craftsmen of Gao Weihao's studio are in the billet. Photo by Wang Qian
In the green umbrella traditional area of Taoxichuan Market, a creator paints on porcelain. Photo by Wang Qian
In Jingdezhen, the ancient porcelain capital, large and small markets, entrepreneurial studio parks, and even streets and alleys, you can always see groups of young people. According to 2023 statistics, there has been a net inflow of population in Jingdezhen in the past 10 years, and there are currently more than 60,000 people in Jingdezhen. Correspondingly, most of the fourth-tier cities in central China showed a trend of net outflow of population.
Around 2010, the term "Jingpiao" emerged. Different from the young people who work hard in many first-tier cities, in Jingdezhen, the crowd of "drifters" is more concentrated: craftsmen who came to learn art in the 90s of the 20th century, young students who graduated from art academies across the country, and entrepreneurs in the art industry at home and abroad...... But the life of "drifting" is not the same. Some people live and relax at ease, and some people work day and night to start a business. Compared with the influx of traffic in a short period of time, this small city in Jiangxi has always been active on the list of life destinations that young people yearn for.
What exactly do young people yearn for? We came to Jingdezhen to observe the way of life of young people here, to talk to them, and to try to find their reasons to stay in the small city.
Young people who went to the "town" to catch the market
At less than 3 p.m. on Friday, there was a long queue in front of a house in Taoxichuan in the Cultural and Creative Park.
The team was full of young people, dragging suitcases and carrying large bags. Tourists who don't know why come up and think it's another Internet celebrity check-in spot, after all, it's not uncommon for Jingdezhen to queue up for photos. After asking the people in line, I found out that they were all market stall owners, waiting to receive tables and chairs under the uniform regulations of the stalls.
When the time came, the warehouse door opened, and the young stall owners entered one by one. After "Jing Piao" Jiayou selected, he put the two baskets of works he brought, along with the tables and chairs used to set up the stall, into the camping trolley and walked towards the stall. The specific location of the stall was obtained by lot, and Jiayou had good luck this week and was still on the main road.
Jiayou's booth displays hand-fired aromatherapy. Unlike in previous weeks, he brought a few vintage-style shelves and a piece of printed fabric with him to make the products more staggered. "If you don't look good, you will be said." Jiayou said that last week, because the table was too full, the market inspector in Taoxichuan issued a "warning" to him.
Behind the restrictions on stallholders is the market's thirst for creativity.
"It has to be original." It just explained that when Taoxichuan's stall owners applied for booths, in addition to submitting basic information, the selection of innovation and product style should also be handed over to volunteers selected from the stall owners for mutual evaluation.
Mandula, a Mongolian boy, remembers that in the fifth month of his visit to Jingdezhen, he was selected to set up a stall for the first time, carrying large bags of ceramic wine cups, coffee cups, bowls, and fruit bowls with traditional Mongolian patterns, which looked rare in the market, and sold three or four on the first night.
His current booth is in the white tent area of Taoxichuan, which is a designer area, and his works are also stored in a special area. Compared with other areas, the designer area has the greatest degree of freedom in exhibition, no longer a fixed square table, you can enlarge the size of the props, the only purpose is to look good, "to be personalized, personal style to be obvious".
"We usually go to the creative area to wander around, and if we often see that his (the stall owner's) things have not changed, we may ask the stall owner to go back and adjust for the time being." A volunteer who has participated in the screening of stall owners said.
As the sky gets darker, the old factory buildings, red brick walls, and towering kiln chimneys in Taoxichuan are outlined by dim light strips to give them a more linear beauty, reminding the city of porcelain-making memories in the past.
From the late 90s to the early 2000s of the 20th century, Jingdezhen experienced an industry trough. With the restructuring of the state-owned ceramic factory, a large number of ceramic craftsmen left the city to find another way to make a living. Fortunately, the unique handicraft foundation has not been lost, and it has gradually attracted tens of thousands of artistic "Jing Piao". After that, the neighborhood began to be rebuilt. Today's Taoxichuan block is rebuilt on the original site of the old factory building of "Cosmic Porcelain Factory", one of the top ten porcelain factories in Jingdezhen. The return of the ceramicists, coupled with the influx of young people, has added a lot of novelty to the small city.
On the road outside Taoxichuan, the traffic is slowing down, and tourists are pouring in: middle school students in school uniforms and school bags, and sisters in headscarves and literary dresses are bargaining for a northern guest holding a cup...... In Taoxicheon, not only the stall owners, but also the customers who linger in the middle of the festival are mostly young people.
I want to change my lifestyle
In the eyes of most people, after thousands of years of accumulation, a complete and mature ceramic industry chain, a very low threshold entrepreneurial environment and a comfortable living atmosphere, Jingdezhen is the place to attract young people.
In the spring of 2022, 26-year-old Mandula quit his job as a pottery teacher in Wuhan and came to Jingdezhen with less than 10,000 yuan in savings.
Although I majored in ceramic sculpture at university, because the school is located in the northwest, there are many limitations in making ceramics. In Jingdezhen, Mandula handed over the drawings to a local craftsman, who provided the bodies and he made artistic expressions on the ceramics.
In the first month of setting up the stall, Mandula earned more than 3,000 yuan, which fully met expectations. In the past two years, Mandula has also participated in three higher-standard Taoranji and held exhibitions in Taoxichuan. Recently, he plans to make some new attempts in his work.
Chen Shengbing also graduated from ceramic art and design. When he was in college, he wanted to make a ceramic work, and he needed one person to do the whole process, starting with going up the mountain to dig up the stones, crushing them and making them into mud. "Because we don't have so many masters in Jingdezhen, no one pulls blanks, and no one paints them by hand." In his sophomore year, Chen Shengbing set a goal that he must come to Jingdezhen for development after graduation.
In July 2022, after graduation, Chen Shengbing went south with 20,000 yuan supported by his family. I rented a studio near the famous sculpture porcelain factory, and the house I lived in, and the rent for two houses was only 1,300 yuan per month.
Chen Shengbing roughly divides the "Jingpiao" who started a business in Jingdezhen into two types of people: some young people are "here to play", and they may earn 5,000 yuan a month and spend 4,000 yuan; There are also some people who really have a business plan and are still working hard for their ideals.
In another village, not far from Chen Shengbing's studio, Gao Weihao's team is working day and night. "At first, I was very shocked in Sanbao Village, a small village with a large number of people who make ceramics, and a very craftsman atmosphere." When he came to Jingdezhen in 2019, Gao Weihao was deeply attracted by it.
Gao Weihao, who graduated from the sculpture department of Guizhou University, asked many people for advice in Sanbao Village to learn the craft of making ceramics. After a long time, Gao Weihao, who just came to travel with a backpack, was obsessed with ceramic making. After gradually figuring out the process, methods and techniques of making ceramics, Gao Weihao realized that this ceramic industry, with 72 complex processes, could not be completed alone.
He decided to stay in Jingdezhen. After renting a farmhouse in Xianghu, Gao Weihao started a business in order to realize the innovative antique porcelain in his mind.
In Jingdezhen, there are not a few young people like Gao Weihao who have turned from tourists to "Jingpiao". Gao Weihao's current assistant is a "post-00" from Shanxi, who originally studied EMU maintenance technology, but also stayed after a trip.
On Xiaohongshu, Si Qi is a ceramic creator with more than 7,000 followers, she has a WeChat community of 500 people, and the fourth group chat on Xiaohongshu will also be full. She doesn't produce much, she doesn't participate in offline stalls, she doesn't supply to buyers, she makes more than 40 hand-pinched cups every month, and they are sold out as soon as they are put on the shelves, and customers who don't grab them will send 500-word buying essays.
Si Qi never studied painting, and after graduating with a master's degree, she went to Hangzhou to do sales work. "I want to do what I love." The summer before last, she decided to quit naked and drifted to Jingdezhen.
Before doing "Jingpiao", she made a special trip to Jingdezhen to take two sculpture classes and pottery hand-kneading classes. Rent a studio, take a ceramics course, rent an apartment...... After coming to Jingdezhen for a month, most of the savings have been used. For financial reasons, Si Qi first found a job at the front desk of a homestay. Night shift, a monthly salary of 2,000 yuan. She also rented one of the two-bedroom rooms as a B&B for a short period of time.
When she first came to Jingdezhen, Si Qi couldn't find a direction, she convened a small-scale market, but some people sold barbecued sausages in the market nonsensically. It wasn't until July last year that Si Qi had the inspiration to design and make a coffee cup with black plant lines, which received thousands of likes on Xiaohongshu and became a hit.
"Some of the 'Jingpiao' groups have moved into Jingdezhen in the opposite direction after experiencing a disappointing life in first- and second-tier cities. I understand that many people are unhappy with their original track and want to change their lifestyle. In the past five years, Zhou Jie (pseudonym), a doctor of communication from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who does research on Jingdezhen city branding, has been to Jingdezhen six or seven times, and has interviewed dozens of "Jingpiao" one after another.
Zhou Jie observed that compared with the rhythm of 9 to 5 in big cities, people living in Jingdezhen have their own view of time, and "Jingpiao" can also live a life with strong time autonomy here.
"What attracts them the most is that there are people like themselves here." Many "Jingpiao" told Zhou Jie that the "porcelain power" of Jingdezhen lies in the fact that it is easy to make friends here, and a group of people with similar pursuits naturally have more common topics.
Determine that "you pay off"
Naked words, escaping from the big city, cross-border, relaxed, and casual, Si Qi's story label seems to be in line with people's imagination of "Jing Piao". Some people call Jingdezhen a "flat version of Dali", but Si Qi, who has lived in two places, does not agree with such a statement. The other side of Jingdezhen is competition, elimination and bitterness.
In the third year of "Jing Piao", Mandula felt that he had only calmed down a little. "Last year, when I didn't work for a day, I felt so guilty. Every day is an all-nighter. Mandula said that when he first arrived in Jingdezhen, he was very confused, "I just know that I like ethnic themes and want to draw them." "For the first few months, apart from going out for a walk, I spent most of my time in the house and practiced drawing in the blank every day.
The college friend who did "Jingpiao" together applied to set up a stall in the market earlier than Mandula, but during the May Day holiday in 2022, he only sold a small sculpture. With no income and no recognition, the classmate gave up "Jingpiao" and returned to his hometown in Inner Mongolia, where he is now herding. Mandula had recently hired a part-time painter, a girl who graduated in the same year as him to study visual communication. The girl also wanted to do a studio when she came to Jingdezhen, but she had no capital and a lack of understanding of ceramics, so she could only start part-time.
"There's nothing to do in Jingdezhen, you're bored. On the surface, it looks like they are lying down, but in fact they can be rolled. Si Qi recounted another kind of life, where friends usually returned to their studios in the evening after the afternoon party.
Compared with improving ceramic skills, Si Qi, who is not from a professional class, is better at giving full play to his original sales advantages. She deliberately designed her own product packaging, wanting customers to feel her intentions, "I don't study art, I can't roll products, I can only roll packaging."
Ceramics is the art of earth and fire. Under the double scorching heat and time, if you are not careful, you will fail. When fired into a piece of ceramic ware, the proportion of no obvious defects at first glance is 80% to 90%, but if it is professionally inspected, the real yield is lower.
For Gao Weihao, every kiln opening is a thrilling moment. "After the kiln opened, I was not satisfied, so I could only use a hammer to click and smash it." Gao Weihao collapsed the most, looking forward to opening the kiln, but more than 300 of the 400 cups in a kiln had to be smashed. Gao Weihao can't remember how many times he wanted to give up when faced with a piece of debris. But sometimes, even if a cup is fired into an ideal state, it will discourage him from giving up.
The charm of ceramics may stem from this great uncertainty. No matter how much effort and time is invested in the early stage, carefully drawing, repairing, painting, carving, and glazing, it must still be put into the kiln in the end, waiting for the gift of fate. This kind of "gambling" ingredient naturally attracts Gao Weihao, "this is what makes it fun."
In the early days of his business, Gao Weihao invested about 800,000 yuan in the creative products he designed every year, "If you keep an eye on the money, you can't do anything good." In Jingdezhen, the master can completely follow my ideas, how to paint, how to glaze, and finally become a product to sell, this level of participation gives me a special sense of achievement."
During the visits, Zhou Jie gradually became convinced of the reason why the young man Zhong Jingdezhen was - the traditional handicraft industry has a sense of certainty that "pay will be rewarded", and the handmade ceramics have a sense of uncertainty in making art. "This kind of handicraft production and lifestyle, which is similar to traditional handicrafts but completely different, gives them a variety of choices, and naturally becomes an ideal testing ground."
Perhaps, what young people yearn for is never to "lie flat" easily, but not to be easily defined.
Everything is around the young
The last time she was doing research in Jingdezhen, Zhou Jie was about to graduate, and she had to make a choice between staying in the big city or returning to her hometown to find a teaching job. "I really rejected the fast-paced and competitive pressure of the big city, and I really wanted to go back to my hometown, but I would be disappointed when I went home, because I didn't see many young people at home, and I didn't have much energy."
Zhou Jie feels that Jingdezhen is the perfect combination of the two: it has the leisure of a fourth-tier city, and it does not feel out of touch with its peers in Beijing and Shanghai.
After the epidemic, many craftsmen who had originally left returned to Jingdezhen again, and with the addition of new young people, the number of "Jingpiao" is still soaring, and the rent is also rising.
"Not only the rent, but also the second-hand furniture used for furnishings is rising." Mandula pointed to the chest of drawers in the living room, "This cabinet was 120 yuan last year, and now it costs two or three hundred." ”
Chen Shengbing remembers that the studio he rented two years ago was originally 400 yuan a month, but this year it has risen to 3,000 yuan a month, and it will still be rented immediately. In 2024, Chen Shengbing will move the production site to a relatively remote rural area, "with a rent of 28,000 yuan a year".
In the first three days of this year's "May Day" holiday, Jingdezhen received more than 3 million tourists. For the creators who are in the middle of it, there are also troubles.
Under the topic of "no one can leave Jingdezhen empty-handed" on social media, many tourists posted pictures of bracelets on their arms, shouting "realize the freedom of bracelets in Jingdezhen". Documentary director Yao Fei went to Taoyang New Village Market to observe that on the night of a holiday, a stall can sell 400 yuan bracelets in 10 minutes.
Among the ceramic craftsmen in Jingdezhen, some people feel that the 10 yuan 3 strings of ceramic bracelets have opened the Jingdezhen cultural tourism market and brought traffic to the city, and some craftsmen said bluntly: "Jingdezhen relies on traditional handicrafts after all, and the 10 yuan 3 strings everywhere make people feel like buying in the Yiwu small commodity market." ”
As the operator of Taoxichuan, more than one merchant in the neighborhood has just reported their concerns about the overload of people in the block, "When the flow of 100,000 people is not as good as 60,000, his sales and experience will deteriorate." "But I just thought that Jingdezhen's hot traffic would eventually return to a normal balance.
"There are many young people, and this may be the envy of Jingdezhen in many cities." Just said with a smile. Ancient cities need young power to activate, and Tao Xichuan has proposed since 2015 to provide a place for young artists, designers and craftsmen to start their own businesses. I just remember that in the first batch of commercial formats in Taoxichuan, there was not a Jiangxi local restaurant, all of which were Japanese, Korean, Western, as well as cafes and gyms. "Everything in the city is about young people." From the primary market practice stalls, to the settlement in the Yi space mall, the live broadcast base, and then to the ceramic intelligent manufacturing workshop, Tao Xichuan plays the role of a supporter of youth entrepreneurship, aiming to meet the different stages of the development of entrepreneurs.
The Taoxichuan Creative Market is becoming more and more popular, and Chen Shengbing has applied several times but has not been selected. As a last resort, he put his main sales channel on Taobao, and the sales volume was gratifying, often "out of a kiln to sell a kiln". Chen Shengbing, who is good at operating new media, also distributes his own production on short video platforms and has accumulated a lot of fans.
Frog Spoon unexpectedly won the championship in the "Ugly Things Competition" held by Taobao, and Chen Shengbing also made a special trip to Hangzhou to receive the award. Chen Shengbing still doesn't know who applied for this somewhat nonsensical award for him, but this incident has made Chen Shengbing's products gain unprecedented sales.
In order to catch the new wave of traffic, he quickly expanded the scale of production, gathered his school sisters to form a team of 4 people, hired the aunt in the village to help him, changed to a larger kiln, and doubled the production site to speed up production as much as possible.
"Our profession is like traditional Chinese medicine, mainly relying on experience, and the older you get, the more valuable it is." Chen Shengbing feels that he will most likely make ceramics for the rest of his life, he insists on constantly developing new products, "eating the old book will go out of business sooner or later, which has a lot of lessons from the past, and only by ensuring that it has been updated will it have vitality." Only in this way can the secondary market be stimulated, so that the creators will be more well-known, and the products will have room for appreciation. ”
Regarding the future, although he has not thought about whether to settle his home in Jingdezhen, Chen Shengbing is sure that the studio will definitely be fixed in Jingdezhen. "The city itself is the most influential, and the shipping address is Jingdezhen, which is enough to be competitive in the market." (Reporter Li Chuyue, Wang Qian)
Liberation Daily
Editor: Xiang Yanhong