Families fired up about ceramics

Time of change

But things turned bad in Jingdezhen in the late 1980s and early 90s as all the workers were laid of due to the restructuring of the state-owned factories. Sun Lixin and other potters had to do something else to make a living.

An entrepreneur from Guangzhou, South China's Guangdong province, invited Sun Lixin to work for him, offering a fat salary of more than 2,000 yuan ($275) a month.

"His offer is very impressive to me. You know, I earned a monthly income of only 300 yuan in Jingdezhen at that time," Sun said.

His parents were also among the massive layoffs, instead bringing home the bacon by drawing for some local people who were the first to run their own porcelain workshops.

Sun Lixin returned to Jingdezhen from Guangzhou when he was told that his grandfather was fatally ill.

"I am his firstborn grandson, whom the big family has great expectation on," Sun said.

He took with him all the money he had saved over several years in Guangzhou and rebuilt the kiln that the family had before 1949.

Most of the Sun family members are artisans. Sun Lixin's uncle has a mastery of porcelain pigments.

In January 1975, the Jingdezhen-based ceramic research institute affiliated to China's former ministry of light industry was assigned the special mission of making porcelain for Chairman Mao Zedong. More than 100 sets of porcelain, or nearly 10,000 pieces, which were coded as 7501, were produced in a year.

Sun Lixin's mother, who is specialized in underglaze polychrome enamels, was in the team for the important assignment.

"In my childhood, I saw my mom doing underglaze enameling on a very thin piece in the middle of night. There was a slight sound of cracking. I saw a tear rolling down her cheek," Sun Lixin recalled compassionately.

"Flaws make porcelain prices drop, so no single flaw is allowed on ceramic pieces," he said.

But Sun has kept piles of porcelain wares with flaws, which, in his words, remind him of the time and effort his parents invested.

"Hard work and dedication is the character of the Sun family to the core. I have a sense of purpose for making the family craftsmanship better," Sun Lixin said.