When 3D printing meets the 1,000-year-old kiln fires of Jingdezhen, creative sparks fly. The city in east China's Jiangxi Province has made porcelain for a millennium and is known as China's porcelain capital.

American artist Michael May, from Oklahoma, set up his studio there and is now pursuing a PhD at the city's ceramic university. He blends 3D printing with the ancient craft Jingdezhen is famous for.

"I'm doing something nobody has done before," he says. "Sometimes it's lonely."

He's watched friends and classmates give up along the way, which is why he pushes his students to stay the course. As for himself, he's given up a lot to be here. Quitting wasn't on the table.

In Jingdezhen, he explores the history and feels the city's tradition, openness and warmth. The film is about what keeps him there: the quiet workbench he found in the countryside, among rice fields and hills, a cup of tea from a local and the joy in children's faces as they make pottery from mud.