3 - Circulations of White

Summary

This chapter considers the spread of ceramics produced in the Chinese empire to destinations within Eurasia, East and Southeast Asia, and throughout the Indian Ocean during the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. It charts the circulation of Raozhou ceramics as they were traded through the region and far beyond, beginning to show the intricate ways in which local knowledge about making and selling things feeds into and is fed by global patterns of consumption. Moreover, it shows how the look and feel of Raozhou’s porcelain, or the materiality of these goods, changed during this period. To understand these changes, this chapter suggests, one has to consider both local factors, such as the availability of raw materials in the immediate vicinity of the kilns, and global factors, such as the desire for large vessels amongst consumers of porcelain in nomadic communities and in the Islamic worlds of Central Asia. The combination of both local and global factors is key in understanding the changes that occurred during this period.