Tea products from Nanping on show at Beijing fair
The dreamy works of Chen Xuefang, a ceramic artist from Pucheng county, Nanping, Fujian province, caught the attention of people visiting Chinese Traditional Culture Museum in Beijing. The teacups and small decoration sculptures used for a tea set assume translucent texture and a pale green-white glaze, called qingbai. Some of the wares are delicate and as thin as a piece of paper.
The production of qingbai ware flourished in Chen's hometown, a major hub of kilns to fire the kind, during the Song (960-1279) and Yuan (1271-1368) dynasties. Chen grew up to witness people around her making this graceful porcelain and now, she has dedicated herself to reviving the tradition.
Her works dazzle at the Chinese Traditional Culture Museum as part of a three-day fair to mark this year's International Tea Day on Wednesday.
CTCM's tea-themed fair this year, running until Friday, shows tea products and traditions related to tea drinking from Nanping where the Wuyi Mountain is located. The mountain is where several famed kinds of tea have been cultivated, such as Dahongpao.
Also on show are paper-cuts, bamboo-woven objects, Jianzhan ware — another famed porcelain kind known for its unique brown glaze — and books made with the woodblock printing technique from Jianyang district, once a major woodblock printing center centuries ago.
