Opened in 2004, Shiwan Ceramic Museum locates in Chancheng District in Foshan. It is the first industrial museum in Guangdong Province with the theme of ceramic culture. The museum covers an area of more than 2,000 square meters, with an investment of more than 20 million RMB. The whole museum introduces ceramic in different aspects, including the development of ceramics, the formation of pottery, the evolution of kilns, the development of Shiwan ceramic industry and Shiwan pottery art. The museum applies advanced techniques of sound and light and modern electricity equipments on its exhibitions.
Main exhibitions in the museum
There is a general introduction to the ceramics including the places of origin in various periods and different regions. It displays a distribution map of the main kilns of Chinese ceramics in history. The exhibitions also fully demonstrate the production process of Shiwan ceramics.
The exhibitions directly show the evolution and development of kilns in ancient China. People can also see the main products of the daily-use ceramics in Shiwan in the 1940s. The museum uses seven groups of the large-scale pottery sculptures to reproduce the pottery scene in the past. People can not only watch the ancient skills of wood burning and making pottery, but also experience the fun in person and communicate with the famous ceramic masters.
Highlights in the museum
Shiwan Ceramic Museum shows people extremely exquisite ceramic arts. Among them, the Dongping River Catalogue, ceramic God of Gate and the Large Vase are three most representative ceramic products in the museum, which tourist could not miss.
Dongping River Catalogue is the huge ceramic mural created by potter Zhang Wengu. It has a total length of 42.6 meters and a height of 2.6 meters. It is composed of 539 ceramic plates which are able to cover the entire outer wall of the museum. Dongping River Catalogue reproduces the scenes of people’s daily life along the banks of the Dongping River in the late Ming and Qing dynasties.
The ceramic God of Door has the local obvious local characteristic, which is placed at the main entrance of the museum. It is about 2.76 meters high and 1.45 meters wide. It has become the world's largest relief ceramic God of Door.
The large vase has a height of 2.8 meters and a diameter of 1.2 meters, which gathers the main decorative techniques of Shiwan ceramic arts.