Introduction to the book "Shang Porcelain Capital"
This is a million-word realistic epic novel about Gan Po. It is based on the folk saying "Ten miles of pottery and half of Duchang", focusing on the migration and ups and downs of four generations of the Yu family in Duchang over more than a hundred years. The story begins with the Poyang Lake flood in the late Qing Dynasty and ends with the successful application of Jingdezhen's handmade ceramics as a cultural heritage. Our ancestors were forced to leave their hometown due to famine and followed the Pohu waterway to "go to town". Generations of Duchang people took root on the banks of the Changjiang River. The book lays out four parallel narrative threads: the perseverance of craftsmen, the pursuit of profits by porcelain merchants, the struggle of female painters, and the search for cultural roots of the new generation are intertwined with each other. After the guild fighting in the late Qing Dynasty, the ravages of war in the Republic of China, the public-private partnership after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the ups and downs of state-owned porcelain factories, the pain of restructuring and layoffs, and the chaos of the antique wave, in different eras, some people clung to the ancient methods of wood kilns, some indulged in commercial profits, and some wandered between their hometown and the porcelain city. Foreign scenery drifters, Huibang merchants, and local kiln owners take turns to appear, outlining the scenes of the three gangs competing in Jingdezhen. Four generations of people have made a living, established a career, been confused, and awakened. They have transformed from refugees just for a living to guardians of the cultural heritage of the millennium porcelain capital. The flowing water of the Changjiang River witnesses the rise and fall of kiln fires, and a handful of soil from Poyang Lake tempers the joys and sorrows of the family. It also tells the story of the fate of millions of immigrants from Duchang, who have become flesh and blood with Jingdezhen for centuries.
