Making the Move: International artists drawn to Jingdezhen

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In China's thousand-year-old city of porcelain, a renaissance is underway. More and more foreign artists are exploring Jingdezhen, which is no longer home to just traditional blue and white porcelain. CGTN's Sun Ye introduces us to a Canadian artist who's made the city his center of work.

Philip Read paints ceramics. And he hopes to do so in the "gritty, lively" porcelain city of Jingdezhen , for as long as he can. His first visit in 1989 sold him on the city.

PHILIP READ ARTIST "It was just a four-week visit at first, but I felt the magic moment here, kept coming back. And finally after going back and forth for 10 years, Jingdezhen became my center of work."

He says he has a "fusion style".

"It's one of my favorite pieces, using Jingdezhen's copper read glaze, on ceramic which is my canvas"

And he will go on mixing, and exploring the cultures, just like many other artists here today.

PHILIP READ ARTIST "30 years ago, artists here mostly inherited and carried on traditional crafts. Now, western artists are coming and people experiment with different visual elements."

Some five thousand foreign artists and entrepreneurs now call Jingdezhen home. They also frequent festivals in the city, which are becoming more international.

FENG JUN, CURATOR SPRING AUTUMN ART FAIR "We hope the fair continues bringing artists from home and abroad together, to give them creative new sparks. We're already seeing many crossing-over and branching out, to other art forms and ways of expression. And we're seeing many more art applications coming in from overseas."

For Read, that's all the more reason to stay. Sun Ye, CGTN, JIANGXI PROVINCE.