In the Chaoshan region of Guangdong, visitors drawn by its food may be missing something: a drama in broken porcelain playing out above their heads.
Across rooftops in Jieyang, generations of artisans have pieced together discarded shards of coloured porcelain into intricate mosaics of Guan Yu, the Eight Immortals, and twin dragons chasing a pearl, a craft known locally as qianci, or porcelain inlay. Assembled shard by shard, the figures have brightened the skyline of temples and ancestral halls for centuries, their glazed surfaces catching the sunlight long after the workshops that produced them fell silent. The craft requires no kiln and no paint, only broken porcelain, shattered on purpose and pressed into mortar in compositions precise enough to hold their form through the coastal storms that roll in from the South China Sea.
From street level, the roofs appear as flashes of colour against grey tiles. Look long enough, and the stories come clear.
Author | Feng Huiting
Source | IP Guangdong Creator DITTO Shijue (DITTO视觉)
