At a porcelain workshop in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province, a craftsman carries a pale, freshly shaped vessel toward a kiln. Across the city, young visitors bend over potter's wheels trying to mold wet clay into cups of their own. Clay links the similar, yet distinct scenes: one is rooted in skills honed and passed down over centuries, the other is driven by a new generation eager to learn.

Jingdezhen, known as China's "porcelain capital", has more than 2,000 years of pottery-making history and over 1,000 years of imperial-kiln production. By the 16th century, it had become the center of the world's handicraft porcelain industry.

Its wares have traveled to courts and homes worldwide, carrying Chinese techniques and aesthetics far beyond the city limits. For years, porcelain shaped global trade, linking China with the wider world.

When President Xi Jinping visited Jingdezhen in 2023, he toured kiln ruins, a ceramic museum and ancient ceramic workshops in the Taoyangli Historical and Cultural District.

Xi labeled ceramics as a Chinese treasure and an important calling card of Chinese civilization. He called for a stronger ceramics industry and for the millennium-old porcelain capital to shine even brighter.

Now that heritage is being renewed through people. An old saying held that a finished piece could pass through 72 hands — shorthand for 72 main procedures, traditionally divided among specialists who each mastered a single skillset.

Today, many more hands are joining the story to learn and pass these skills on: more than 60,000 "Jingpiao" — a phrase used to describe people from elsewhere who live and work in Jingdezhen — have made the city their base. Among them, more than 5,000 are from overseas.

Residency programs are bringing Chinese and international artists to local studios. French ceramic artist Manon Valle, who has returned three times, described Jingdezhen as "a rare ecosystem for creation".

"In Jingdezhen, you don't just make artwork. You grow with others," she said.

Visitors are also a part of the renewal drive. At the Jingdezhen Ancient Kiln and Folk Customs Museum, Arjun Gurung from Nepal sat at a potter's wheel as a local artisan guided his hands. "It was only after experiencing the process of making porcelain myself that I truly understood more about Chinese culture and history," he said.

This year's Taoxichuan Spring & Autumn Art Fair brought together about 800 artisans from 38 countries. The 2025 China Jingdezhen International Ceramic Fair recorded more than 480,000 visits and attracted over 1,000 buyers, with exhibitors from more than 30 countries. These events give young makers visibility, connect them with buyers and keep Jingdezhen at the center of global ceramic exchange.

Centuries ago, Jingdezhen porcelain connected China with distant markets. Today, that connection is renewed in studios, markets and at potters' wheels. As Valle put it, "Porcelain carries history. But it also carries stories between people."

zhaoruinan@chinadaily.com.cn