China's 'porcelain capital' reinvents itself, attracts young artists

China has accelerated the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries in recent years, and Jingdezhen, a world-famous porcelain city in east China's Jiangxi Province, has experienced new vitality because of this policy shift.

Sun Qiang is a ceramist from the city of Taiyuan in north China's Shanxi Province. He is one of the entrepreneurs in Jingdezhen. He started his business about 10 years ago in just a small room measuring a few dozen square meters.

"Looking at the scale now, you can see how we've really benefited from the opportunities of this era over the past few years, which has allowed us to grow to our current size," said Sun, referring to his current studio which is about 500 square meters.

Sun believes Jingdezhen has benefited from the local government's efforts to hasten the renovation of old factories.

"The environment in Jingdezhen over the past couple of years has been great, with a large influx of tourists," he said. "If someone wants to get into design, launch a product, or start their studio, I believe there are far more opportunities now than there were in the past."

Taoxichuan Ceramic Art Avenue is a new landmark in Jingdezhen. It was once a ceramic factory built in the 1950s, and was repurposed using the existing industrial-era buildings as a foundation and transformed into a cultural and creative district, which began operating in October 2016.

Gang Hao, general manager of Taoxichuan Ceramic Art Avenue, told CGTN that they are fundamentally engaged in industrial operations, not just the development of physical spaces.

"The operation of this industry plays a crucial role in driving local economic development," she said.

Renovations like Taoxichuan have taken place across the city, attracting young artists from across China to pursue their dreams. For the past decade, the art district has been committed to fostering employment opportunities for young people.

According to Gang, there are about 26,000 registered individual businesses in Taoxichuan, involving around 150,000 people, with over 90-percent of them coming from outside of Jingdezhen.

"These young people have injected new vitality into the city and offer new possibilities for industrial development," she said.

Jingdezhen epitomizes China's drive to develop new industries and models. At the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, the country's leadership stressed it will improve institutions and policies to drive new quality productive forces – which refers to advanced productivity that goes beyond traditional modes of economic growth, yet is in line with local conditions.