NANCHANG, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- Cai Wenjuan's ceramic speakers and coffee cups sold out within days at a trade fair in Budapest earlier this year. The secret to her success? She had painted the Hungarian national flower on each piece using glazing techniques passed down from the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).

"If we don't understand the culture and life of overseas consumers, it's hard to go global; no matter how good our craftsmanship is," said the 39-year-old artist. Cai comes from a family of porcelain makers in Jingdezhen, renowned as the "porcelain capital" with a ceramic history spanning more than 2,000 years in east China's Jiangxi Province.

Cai represents a new generation of creators in Jingdezhen, once the world's premier exporter of china, and now endeavoring to regain a foothold in the global market. This time, they're betting on design innovation, digital manufacturing, and pop-culture collaborations.

The history of Jingdezhen porcelain is virtually an early example of a globalized commodity. For centuries, Jingdezhen provided custom-made dinnerware and decorative wares based on clients' samples into Europe and beyond.

A Ming dynasty (1368-1644) shipwreck discovered off the coast of south China's Hainan around two years ago contained 100,000 pieces of export porcelain, many of which originated from this region. In its heyday, local artisans hand-painted European family crests on custom orders placed by the Dutch East India Company.

Yet in the 1990s, with the Chinese government speeding up state-owned enterprise reforms, Jingdezhen's ten state-run ceramic factories, plagued by a lack of market consciousness and inflexible management structures, ceased operations abruptly. This threw the city's ceramic industry into disarray. Competing ceramics hubs in China and established European brands like Meissen and Wedgwood had come to dominate global trade.

To regain its standing in the global market, the city is combining its ancient skills with modern technology and marketing.

Young studios and e-commerce firms are using 3D printing and online platforms to meet international demand for customized ceramics. At Qianmo Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park, batches of ceramic products are being shipped to overseas warehouses in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand.

"Jingdezhen porcelains used to prize artisanal skills over marketing, but now without mass production, it's hard to stay competitive," said Chen Jun, head of the company.

Chen's company has invested 320 million yuan (about 45 million U.S. dollars) in developing overseas warehousing and agency operations to provide local products directly to international consumers.

Hong Ziyu, 26, runs a company that developed recycled ceramics, made by crushed waste porcelain, to appeal to environment-conscious overseas buyers.

The company also uses 3D printers to create intricate ceramic designs that would be almost impossible to make by hand. "3D printing is good at crafting irregularly shaped ceramics, thus helping expand the diversity of traditional ceramic forms," he said.

The most surprising twist is probably Jingdezhen's entry into the world of artistic toys.

A limited-edition ceramic Molly doll, produced in collaboration with the Chinese toy brand Pop Mart, sold out immediately, despite a price tag of nearly 14,000 yuan.

Chentian Ceramics took two years and more than 20 successive sample modifications to perfect the doll.

"Many tailored porcelain dolls we made for toy brands have a big head and very small feet. Being top-heavy and bottom-light, they were prone to collapse in high-temperature kilns, which prompted us to innovate on the traditional porcelain-making techniques," said Xu Wan, general manager of the company.

The blend of tradition and pop is working: China's trendy toy market experienced explosive growth in the second quarter of the year, with transaction volume surging by over 300 percent year-on-year, according to a report released by idle goods marketplace app Xianyu.

Nearly 100,000 young people are now employed in Jingdezhen's ceramic creative industry. Some are local heirs of family-run studios, while others are entrepreneurs who have come from various parts of China.

Their success reflects a broader trend. In 2024, China's cultural and creative industries surpassed 19 trillion yuan in revenue, with content creation and design services growing 8.4 percent and 7.2 percent, respectively.

The local government is also playing an active role in promoting the global image of Jingdezhen, by organizing constant overseas exhibitions and opening flagship stores that display local brands.

"Jingdezhen is a city of thousands of small workshops and studios. We value the government's push and support in the global journey," Xu said. ■