Funerary Urn at Zhejiang Provincial Museum (Hangzhou) 
View outside the studio at The Pottery Workshop (Jingdezhen) 
Climbing the tea fields with my grandpa in Longwu, Hangzhou 
The Spirit Way at the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, a path lined with burial guardian sculptures that leads to the mausoleum (Nanjing) 
The Spirit Way at the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, a path lined with burial guardian sculptures that leads to the mausoleum (Nanjing) 
The Spirit Way at the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, a path lined with burial guardian sculptures that leads to the mausoleum (Nanjing) 
Terracotta Warriors (Xian) 
Terracotta Warriors (Xian) 
Terracotta Warriors (Xian)
This past fall, I spent a month and a half in China supported by the Warren Mackenzie Advancement Award. First, I stopped in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. While there, I went to the Zhejiang Provincial Museum where I got to see these amazing funerary urns (hunping). From there, I took a train west to spend two weeks at a residency at The Pottery Workshop in Jingdezhen, Jiangxi. Two weeks flew by, and I packed an inordinate amount of ceramics into a suitcase, which I lugged back to Hangzhou. I rested here for a few days and saw some family before heading to Nanjing. There, I visited the Nanjing Museum—more funerary urns—and went to the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum. From there, I took another train to Xian where I went to see the Terracotta warriors. I was so grateful to have deepened my experiential knowledge of ceramics in this trip, and was looking forward to returning home and finally having access to cheese again.
Two weeks in Jingdezhen was an incredibly informative experience. The longstanding history of ceramics production still permeates the city in really unique ways, and participating in a residency there felt like a way to engage with that history in contemporary terms. The residency provided us with space in a communal studio. Although I speak Mandarin, it was my first time talking about clay in Chinese, so I got to practice that by buying clay and hanging out with a local mold-making master. Two weeks felt pretty packed, as it felt like there were many activities to take part in: The Pottery Workshop holds a weekly craft market, we visited some ceramics production facilities, and I also toured the Jingdezhen Ceramics Institute!