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National Geographic : 1920 Nov
Contents
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE rice pattern. The wet clay is first formed into a crude cup or plate on the potter's wheel. After the piece has dried for several hours or for a day, it is carefully scraped with a special kind of knife which conforms to the curvature of the vessel. The next step is to cut in the kernel-shaped holes. This is done by a skilled workman, who uses a small, flexi ble steel lancet. I had always thought that the rice pat tern was made by pressing kernels of rice into the damp clay. It was not until I saw the actual process that this erroneous impression was corrected. After these small apertures have been completed the vessel is ready for the under-glaze paint ing. Decorating finished, the next step is to apply the glazing fluid. This is a thin, milky substance of high-grade porce lain. Sometimes the bowl is dipped, but the cold, raw liquid is usually put on with a soft wool brush. The operation is repeated about thirty times, with an interval for drying, until all the holes are filled. Five or six coat ings only can be applied in one day. The piece is then fired in the usual manner, and comes out of the furnace with the filled holes standing out in beautiful trans- lucent designs. The firm exporting tity of porcelain from a Chinese company in the largest quan Ching-teh-chen is New York City. Each piece is carefully packed by hand in rice straw before it is packed in large boxes. These foreign boxes are made in Ching-teh-chen, and after being marked both in Chinese and English are shipped directly to New York. CHING-TEH -CHEN HAS A BIG FUTURE The outstanding impression which a Westerner carries away from this teem ing industrial city is the primitiveness of the methods in use. In not a single shop or factory does one find modern ma chines. Not even the simplest mechanical devices for operating a series of wheels by means of belts are to be found. Every piece of porcelain is turned out by hand or by foot. Yet it is astonishing how much these patient workmen produce with their obso lete methods and crude devices. New ideas penetrate interior China slowly, but with the opening of the Nanking-Nan chang Railway, which has been planned and surveyed, Ching-teh-chen will as sume a position of commercial influence that will astonish the world. The enor mous clay deposits, together with the quantity of cheap labor, touched by the magic hand of a twentieth-century artist engineer, will push this old and interest ing city into a position that will far out shine her ancient glory. "THE MAN IN THE STREET" IN CHINA Some Characteristics of the Greatest Undeveloped Market in the World of Today BY GUY MAGEE, JR. CHINA offers today more allure ments, both to the legitimate pro moter and to the professional exploiter, than any other quarter of the globe. With four hundred million peo ple, a market of tremendous potentiality already established; cheap, intelligent labor abundant; money worshiped, and a national spirit yet lacking-what could present a more inviting field for enter prise ? So much misinformation, or rather lack of information, is extant in regard to the every-day characteristics of this great people that the present seems op portune to acquaint ourselves with the "man in the street." In numbers he is second only to the agricultural class; in importance as a market for immediate foreign development he stands first. In forming our opinions of things Oriental, either from a cultural or a 406
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