Chinese ceramic ware shows a continuous development since imperial times and is one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics. The first types of ceramics were made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese porcelain wares made for the imperial court. Porcelain is so identified with China that it is still called "china" in everyday English usage.
Most later Chinese ceramics, even of the finest quality, were made on an industrial scale, thus few names of individual potters were recorded. Many of the most renowned workshops were owned by or reserved for the Emperor, and large quantities of ceramics were exported as diplomatic gifts or for trade from an early date.
Introduction
Terminology and categories
Porcelain is "a collective term comprising all ceramic ware that is white and translucent, no matter what ingredients are used to make it or to what use it is put." The Chinese tradition recognizes two primary categories of ceramics, high-fired [cí 瓷] and low-fired [táo 陶]. The Erya defined porcelain [cí 瓷] as "fine, compact pottery" [táo 陶]. Chinese ceramic wares can also classified as being either northern or southern. Present-day China comprises two separate and geologically different land masses, brought together by the action of continental drift and forming a junction that lies between the Yellow and Yangtze rivers. The contrasting geology of the north and south led to differences in the raw materials available for making ceramics.
HENRY NICHOLLS/AP ...The party’s cautious “Ming vase” campaign worked politically but as the year ends it more resembles an empty vessel, devoid of an overall vision for Britain and solutions to its economic malaise ... Comment. The TimesView ... Oliver Wright.
In fact, it’s just like a conversation with the woman herself ... ” ... ALAMY ... If you manage to hold on to that truth, to get that precious Ming vase through all the bullshit in production and rehearsal and over the finishing line, then that’s job done.” ... Art.
Both Tony Blair and Keir Starmer adopted a ‘MingVaseStrategy’ to win their first elections but, unlike his predecessor, the latter appears to have continued this overly cautious approach in government ....
Labour MPs have begun to think the unthinkable. ‘There are two big events coming up next year,’ a Cabinet minister told me ... Now Starmer has successfully carried the Ming vase into Downing Street, what actually is the point of him any more? ... .
... in other countries as the “Ming vase strategy”, wherein opposition parties tread lightly and carefully to avoid dropping the “Ming vase”, and thus refrain from forthright interventions on some issues.
For, once again, storm clouds may be gathering ... More pressingly, a major documentary titled Harry. The Lost Prince is to air on television in Germany on Tuesday ... She said ... He treated her a bit like a Ming vase that he doesn’t want to knock over.’ ... .
Hugh Linehan. Tetchy Micheál was replaced by avuncular Micheál. You couldn’t see behind the rostrums, but it felt at times as if each of these protagonists was clutching a Ming vase with grim determination throughout ... He really should stop muttering ... .
With the weather recently, I’ve felt as if I were living under an enormous grey plastic bin-lid ... This year every tree in the wood was lit up ... There were ... If only she’d dropped her precious Ming vase ... .
After a crushing defeat in any election, commentary naturally moves towards discussing the genius of the victor’s campaign and the loser’s blunders ... This is a pity ... Comment. Related articles ... NOTEBOOK ... If only she’d dropped her precious Ming vase ... .
But the global media and Western pontificators are clutching their pearls in dismay ... But one has to ask ... Nor can you coast on a “Ming vase strategy” – pretty and fragile, but lacking any substance – while the foundation of people’s lives crumbles ... .
She says virtually nothing on policy, but this is no cautious ‘Ming vase’ strategy ... So, there is an argument for the opposition to not rock the boat unless it really has to.
One of the regular refrains from Keir Starmer’s team during their wilderness years was that oppositions don’t win elections, governments lose them ... “There will be no Ming vase strategy,” says a close supporter, ruling out a campaign run on caution ... .
As America goes to the polls, the seat of its democracy, Washington DC, is suffused with a surreal calm ... “Nothing is going to change … Nobody has the answers.” ... For Starmer, the Ming vase strategy paid off; for Harris, the outcome is far from certain ... .
... public services all the way through the election and Labour, not wanting to drop the precious Ming vase, went along with it, knowing they’d have one hell of a challenge once they won the election.
