Lecture: Jingdezhen: From Ancient Kiln to Creative Hub and UNESCO World Heritage Aspirations with Professor Felicity Aylieff and Curator, Ms Baixu Xiong at UMAG

The HKU Museum Society is pleased to co-present this lecture with the HKU Museum and Art Gallery. It is organized in conjunction with HKUMS’s upcoming tour, “Jingdezhen & Huangshan Cultural Journey: Discover Heritage through Craft and Humanities”.  Members, guests, and students are warmly invited to attend this event.

Lecture synopsis

Inscribed as China’s 61st World Heritage Site on 25 July 2026, Jingdezhen’s continuous production of porcelain from the 10th to the 19th century has profoundly influenced the industrial, artistic and trading of porcelain in China and beyond.

Against this background, this lecture will explore Jingdezhen’s transformation from 1996 to 2026, alongside British ceramic artist Prof. Felicity Aylieff’s twenty-year creative journey between London and China’s porcelain capital. Professor Aylieff will discuss why she chose Jingdezhen as a creative base, what she gained from its porcelain culture and craftsmanship, her major achievements, and the city’s most significant changes through her eyes.

Born and raised in Jingdezhen, Ms Baixu Xiong will outline three key phases of Jingdezhen’s development: the post-1996 reform of state-owned ceramic enterprises into workshops and small factories; the 2006–2016 evolution of traditional ceramic industries into creative clusters; and the 2016–2026 renewal of industrial heritage, cultural tourism upgrading, and UNESCO World Heritage aspirations.

Speakers

Professor Felicity Aylieff, Artist and Senior Tutor (Research) of Royal College of Art, Co-Founder of Red House Ceramic Design Studio

Felicity Aylieff has an established reputation as a maker of large-scale, sculptural ceramics. Having worked from her studio in the UK for over three decades, 2005 saw her undertake an ‘incredibly liberating’ artist residency in Jingdezhen, China, the world-famous capital of porcelain production. It was to be the beginning of a lasting collaborative relationship with factories in Jingdezhen, where she has co-founded Red House Ceramic Design Studio with Takeshi Yasuda and Baixu Xiong, making monumental porcelain pots, the largest standing at over four meters high. Her work shows her passion for material and process through its use of colour, pattern, and historically informed decorative techniques. Represented in major public collections, her work has astounded collectors and curators alike.  Felicity has a teaching career that spans over 40 years and is currently Professor of ceramics and glass and research at the Royal College of Art, London. Her work is held in numerous international private and public collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA. Her last major solo exhibition was held in 2024 at the Royal Botanic Gardens, at Kew, in London.

Ms Baixu Xiong, Curator and Co-Founder of Red House Ceramic Design Studio

Baixu Xiong was born in Jingdezhen, China, where her family have been involved in the porcelain industry and tradition for generations. In 2011, she co-founded Red House Ceramic Design Studio with internationally renowned ceramic artists Takeshi Yasuda and Felicity Aylieff. She has worked in the field of modern and contemporary ceramic art for more than a decade, continuously curating and organising exhibitions of modern and contemporary ceramic art, as well as educational and outreach activities related to ceramic art. She works closely with art institutions and independent artists both in China and abroad, striving to build more open platforms for exchange between Eastern and Western ceramic cultures.

Photo credit to Red House Ceramic Design Studio