Long COVID for the craft industry: findings from China's “Porcelain Capital” pre and post COVID

ABSTRACT

This paper systematically examines how COVID has shaped an essential craft industry in Jingdezhen, China's “Porcelain Capital”, providing a typical case reflecting COVID’s structural effects on the cultural and creative sectors. Drawing upon primary data collected through four field trips between September 2018 and March 2023, this paper reveals the enormous challenges craft practitioners and businesses face amid COVID, including financial losses, business closures, and diminished international trade. Despite easing restrictions since 2023, there is little sign that the industry will return to pre-pandemic status soon. Moreover, although COVID and the “digital pivot” triggered by it introduced new opportunities for some craft practitioners, they predominantly exposed and exacerbated existing inequalities in the craft industry, including among private businesses and individual practitioners.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID
• craft industry
• cultural and creative sectors
• porcelain capital
• China

Introduction

Between 2020 and 2022, COVID significantly disrupted worldwide trade networks (Cadby, 2021), triggered racism (Tan & Tao, 2024; Tao & Loo, 2022), and caused severe disruptions to education (Fraschini & Tao, 2021) and tourism (Gössling et al., 2021). Likewise, the cultural and creative sector, including the craft industry, experienced profound challenges. The closure of venues, cancellation of events, and reduction in consumer spending profoundly hampered the revenue streams of creative workers and organisations (Jones, 2022; Shaughnessy et al., 2022). Moreover, COVID restricted market access for many practitioners (Cadby, 2021; Joffe, 2021). Consequently, the sector experienced widespread job losses and economic insecurity (Dümcke, 2021). Many creative workers were forced to seek alternative sources of income or rely on government support (Holcombe-James et al., 2022).

Beyond economic challenges, COVID also seriously disrupted the creation and dissemination of creative works, posing severe challenges to craft production (Roigé et al., 2021). For example, the lockdown and other public health measures implemented in many countries resulted in the closure of cultural institutions, such as museums, and the cancellation of cultural events (Samaroudi et al., 2020). These changes decimated craft sales worldwide, radically impacting vulnerable and marginalised communities (Davies, 2021).

Against this background, producer and consumer behaviour underwent a digital turn (Hylland, 2022). “Screen-based cultural consumption” (Hylland & Kleppe, 2023) on streaming platforms such as TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram provided new ways for many craft and visual artists to promote as well as sell their works (Kang et al., 2019). In Europe, these changes were primarily initiated by the private sector, with little evidence of any shift in national digital cultural policies amid COVID (Hylland et al., 2022). In contrast, in China, where the state significantly influences cultural realms (Tao & Griffith, 2018, 2019; Xu & Tao, 2022a), the government launched two significant digital cultural policies amid COVID: Opinions on Promoting High-quality Development of the Digital Cultural Industry (关于推动数字文化产业高质量发展的意见) by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism in 2020 and Opinions on Promoting the Implementation of the National Cultural Digitisation Strategy (关于推进实施国家文化数字化战略的意见) by the State Council in 2022. These policies demonstrate the Chinese government's intent to cultivate a digital ecosystem for the cultural and creative industries, encompassing production, distribution, and consumption. In China's private sector, cultural and creative practitioners employed various strategies to cope with the changes and crises triggered by COVID. Many shifted to online marketing with digital technologies and created new virtual experiences.

COVID brought a significant transition to e-commerce and transparent pricing in the cultural and creative sector (Cadby, 2021). Moreover, as a value co-creation process, the digitally-mediated practice of hashtag communities helped promote “positive emotions” around the sector during lockdowns (Ginzarly & Srour, 2022). However, Holcombe-James et al. (2022) have highlighted other not-so-bright consequences of the acclaimed “digital pivot” amid COVID.

The variations in how COVID impacted the cultural and creative sector were not exclusively associated with the “digital pivot”. For example, state employees and private practitioners in China's music industry faced different risks and challenges during COVID (Gu et al., 2021). Likewise, in Germany, as COVID took on pandemic status in April 2020, although public cultural employees kept their salaries thanks to the “cultural worker fund” (Kurzarbeitergeld), many who worked in the private or non-profit sectors suffered a heavy loss of income (Dümcke, 2021). As Dümcke (2021) argued, COVID demonstrated not only how fragile the cultural and creative sectors are but also how fragmented they are. People and businesses took a wide range of actions to overcome the challenges that COVID caused or exposed. Some efforts worked, and others failed. As a result, COVID created opportunities for some while others suffered.

Numerous studies have assessed COVID's impact on the cultural and creative sector, practitioners, and related politics and policies, but little research has systematically analysed different coping strategies and their effects. This paper addresses this gap by examining Jingdezhen, China’s “Porcelain Capital” (UNESCO, 2018), through four in-depth field trips, comparing pre- and post-pandemic situations. After introducing Jingdezhen's porcelain industry, the paper discusses the challenges faced by this industry and various local coping strategies. It also explores the uneven consequences for practitioners in the sector and reflects on how COVID exposed and magnified fragmentation and inequality within the cultural and creative sector.

Jingdezhen’s porcelain industry

Jingdezhen is an ideal location to observe and analyse COVID's impacts on the creative sector because the city exemplifies modern dynamics in China's craft industries. Porcelain manufacturing is a vital part of China’s traditional handicraft industries. Since the 1200s, Jingdezhen has established a national and international reputation for porcelain production, with porcelain traded to the Middle East and Europe through the Silk Road (Chen, 1996, p. 335; Garner, 1970). Jingdezhen's porcelain exports flourished throughout China's Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, making it one of the world's most renowned ceramic production centres (Shen, 1985, pp. 118–126). Today, Jingdezhen remains one of China's most famous areas for craft porcelains (Gillette, 2015, pp. 237–238; Huang, 2012). Moreover, compared with the other porcelain centres in China, which primarily rely on large-scale mechanical production lines, Jingdezhen's porcelain industry is far more diverse, consisting of hundreds of factories and workshops with various scales and specialisations (Xu & Tao, 2022a).

Historically, Jingdezhen's private porcelain manufacturing was, in most cases, dispersed among small workshops. Before the twentieth century, Jingdezhen’s porcelain industry was heavily influenced by officials supervising porcelain production and distribution on behalf of China's imperial court. During the Republican era, especially in the 1930s, Jingdezhen's porcelain industry experienced a severe decline due to wars and political turmoils (Dillon, 1978). After the People's Republic was established in 1949, Jingdezhen, like many other places in China, experienced a rapid wave of socialist reform in its traditional workshops. As a result, ten flagship state-owned porcelain factories were established to replace the small private workshops (Gillette, 2016, p. 52). These big porcelain factories struggled to compete when China embarked on market-oriented economic reform in the late 1970s. Consequently, Jingdezhen’s local authority imposed a “shock therapy” approach in the mid-1990s. By 2004, Jingdezhen’s state-owned and city-owned porcelain factories and collective enterprises had been closed, sold off, or contracted out to private entrepreneurs (Gillette, 2015, p. 225). Consequently, in contemporary Jingdezhen, most porcelain is produced in private workshops, studios, and small-to-medium factories. They create various products, such as traditional and modern fine art decorative porcelain, sculptural porcelain, modern ceramic trinkets, and utilitarian porcelain for households, hotels, and restaurants. Some local manufacturers also provide traditional porcelain craftsmanship courses, catering to the increasing demands of immersed heritage experience.

As China’s traditional “porcelain capital”, Jingdezhen has long attracted considerable attention from various levels of government in China. In 2017, the Jingdezhen Ceramic Industry Museum Taoxichuan (陶溪川), built at the site of a former state-owned porcelain factory, was acknowledged by UNESCO as a porcelain heritage architecture landmark that brands Jingdezhen as a Creative City of Crafts and Folk Arts (UNESCO, 2018, p. 29). Since then, the Chinese government has been pushing for Jingdezhen's imperial kilns to be listed as a World Heritage Site. These initiatives create opportunities for porcelain practitioners to showcase their works, demonstrate skills, and forge new collaborations. Consequently, Jingdezhen attracts tens of thousands of practitioners from across China to advance their careers and businesses. These skilled migrants bring investment, knowledge, and ideas, connecting Jingdezhen to national and global markets.

Thanks to its historical legacy, contemporary significance, and diversity in its porcelain industry, Jingdezhen provides an ideal case for observing and analysing COVID’s impacts on China’s craft industries.

Four phases of fieldwork in Jingdezhen

The empirical data for this research were collected through four phases of fieldwork in Jingdezhen. The initial phase occurred in September and October 2018, when twenty-six porcelain producers, salespeople and business owners were interviewed. We employed the Constructivist Grounded Theory method, commonly used in analysing interviews and interpreting interview testimony (Charmaz, 2006), to code our 26 interviews in three progressive stages: initial, focused, and axial. Initial codes are provisional, comparative, and grounded in the data obtained by a sentence-by-sentence initial coding strategy. At the focused coding level, the first-round initial codes were sifted to identify those codes that best served to categorise the data. Axial coding then helped us to construct a dense texture of code relationships in three steps: defining the attributes and dimensions of a category, attaching subcategories, and repackaging the data of the initial coding to build a coherent framework around several core axes for analysis. The axial coding results revealed the state of Jingdezhen’s porcelain industry immediately before the pandemic, serving as a baseline for our analysis. This three-step coding method was then repeated for processing the data from the later three fieldwork trips.

The second fieldwork phase occurred in September and October 2021. For comparison, we attempted to re-interview the initial 26 practitioners, but only 13 remained active in Jingdezhen. In other words, half of those interviewed in 2018 had left the industry. This high exit rate prompted us to scrutinise their departure and evaluate COVID’s potential role. Through interviews, we examined the circumstances of all those who had exited. Two retired due to old age; two relocated to care for elderly family members. Three left Jingdezhen for career development prospects elsewhere. The remaining six lost their workplaces due to the redevelopment of the historic quarter. One or more may have relocated their businesses within Jingdezhen, but we couldn't locate them. While COVID may have contributed to their decisions, it wasn't the sole reason for any of them.

Fortunately, the remaining 13 original interviewees provided insights into COVID's impact. We also interviewed 12 additional practitioners, most in roles comparable to those in our earlier sample who had left the industry. As informants highlighted online sales as the most significant change during COVID, we specifically interviewed online sales specialists. We conducted field observations in well-known porcelain marketplaces to confirm interview testimony on changes in business and customer flows due to COVID.

Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research judges saturation by whether new information emerges with added samples. Following this principle, in both rounds, the final interviews confirmed prior findings with minimal new insights. The demographic and background information in the supplementary material shows that the sample has a balanced age distribution and a representative mix of local and migrant practitioners. Only 12 of the 38 interviewees were female despite our efforts to equalise the gender mix, reflecting Jingdezhen's porcelain industry’s skewed gender characteristics.

Between September and October 2022, sites from the 2018 and 2021 fieldwork were revisited. Although no formal interviews were conducted, extensive ethnographic fieldwork was conducted through informal conversations with practitioners and close observation of online and offline business operations. The detailed field notes revealed that the late 2021 situation resembled late 2020, with the shift from in-person to online sales further consolidated.

In March 2023, we revisited Jingdezhen after China abandoned the “zero-COVID” policy. Most of the 25 practitioners interviewed in October 2021 continued to practice. Six were chosen for follow-up interviews, and three new practitioners were interviewed to gain insights into the effects of the “digital pivot”, particularly livestreaming.

To summarise, the empirical data presented in this paper were gathered from September 2018 to March 2023. We formally interviewed 41 craft practitioners, many being interviewed multiple times. Due to word limits, we have detailed our coding strategy and process in the online supplementary material for those interested in deeper exploration.

Jingdezhen's phased COVID response

Worldwide, COVID caused massive disruption to the cultural and creative sectors (Dümcke, 2021, p. 19). Our fieldwork reveals that COVID triggered significant changes in Jingdezhen’s porcelain industry. We identified four distinctive stages of these changes.

Stage I: lockdown (February to April 2020)

After COVID's outbreak, China's National Health Commission (NHC) implemented nationwide pandemic prevention policies in January 2020. All public face-to-face events and gatherings were cancelled or postponed, and movement was limited to essential travel only. Jingdezhen was placed into lockdown on 4 February 2020. As a result, the offline porcelain trade nearly ceased, and porcelain production was curtailed, as employees had to stay home [Interviewee 16, 2021]. In addition, shipments of non-essential commodities were halted, interrupting, and sometimes suspending, supply and delivery chains [Interviewees 6, 13 & 21, 2021].

As new COVID cases increased across China, the NHC postponed the return-to-work date several times in February 2020. As a result, many employees had to take three months of unpaid leave before they were allowed to return to work in April 2020 [Interviewees 16, 18 & 21, 2021]. In addition, the lockdown also caused significant financial loss to many porcelain workshop proprietors due to the high cost of ongoing rent payments and massive order cancellations from regular customers [Interviewees 3 & 23, 2021].

Stage II: slow recovery (May 2020–February 2021)

After April 2020, porcelain deliveries resumed in Jingdezhen as the mobility of people and commodities resumed [Interviewee 21, 2021]. However, it remained mandatory for artisans to wear masks and conduct body temperature checks at the workplace [Interviewee 16, 2021]. Sales volumes gradually increased. Some local tourists started to return to porcelain studios as early as May 2020, and visitors from other provinces returned to Jingdezhen in June 2020 [Interviewee 1, 2021].

However, despite the lifting of lockdown, Jingdezhen was much quieter than in the pre-COVID period throughout 2020 and early 2021. People were cautious of attending public events owing to fears of infection [Interviewees 2 & 16, 2021]. Entry to indoor public venues required a Health Code, with visitors from risk areas needing tests and quarantines. Mandatory quarantine for all close contacts was imposed whenever a new case was identified. These restrictions discouraged many potential porcelain buyers from visiting Jingdezhen.

Many of those Jingdezhen practitioners who specialised in supplying utilitarian and decorative wares for hotels and restaurants were forced entirely or partially to cease manufacturing for seven months between February and August 2020. In the five months following the lifting of the lockdown, few orders were placed by hotels and restaurants. Not until September 2020 did orders begin to recommence [Interviewee 23, 2021].

Since September 2020, Jingdezhen has experienced a notable rise in visitors from other Chinese provinces, although the numbers have not reached pre-COVID levels [Interviewees 1 & 25, 2021]. In addition, the annual Jingdezhen Porcelain Expo (JPE, 瓷博会) was held in person in October 2020 and drew in visitors from as far as Xi’an, Wuhan and Hangzhou. As a result, fine art decorative porcelain sales were relatively good during this period [Interviewee 25, 2021]. However, waves of COVID infections from November 2020 to February 2021 disrupted the continued recovery of the industry [Interviewees 22, 23 & 25, 2021].

Stage III: the “Zero COVID” policy (February 2021–November 2022)

In February 2021, China implemented its “Zero COVID” policy. During this stage, Jingdezhen's craft practitioners got used to the occasional resurgence of COVID cases [Interviewees 22 & 23, 2021] and dealing with snap lockdowns. In addition, COVID cases and measures in other parts of China affected many porcelain trading activities. For example, sales professionals faced significant uncertainty regarding attending trade events outside Jingdezhen [Interviewee 22, 2021].

All types of porcelain manufacturing capacity, but not sales, had recovered nearly to the pre-COVID levels by around February 2021. Around mid-2021, internet sales began to flourish, leading to an upsurge in significant orders. Demand was so high that it sometimes exceeded supply and delivery availability [Interviewee 13, 2021]. In particular, the TikTok livestreaming sales platform started to take off, particularly among dealers in traditional teawares and modern-style ornamental porcelain [Interviewees 6, 7 & 19, 2021].

Despite the flourishing online business, the number of visitors remained notably lower. For example, popular spots for tea culture and teaware sales, such as Guomao Porcelain Marketplace and the Teaware Market Building, were nothing like before COVID. These places used to be bustling during the day and the night, especially on weekends. However, substantially fewer daytime visitors were observed during fieldwork in October 2022. Moreover, over 90% of porcelain stores in these marketplaces were closed in the evening, a primary business time before COVID.

Stage IV: post-Pandemic (since November 2022)

The Chinese government lifted many public health restrictions at the end of 2022. As a result, after an initial surge of COVID cases, domestic mobility resumed in early 2023. Bolstered by the Spring Festival holidays, Jingdezhen experienced an immense influx of visitors across China [Interviewees 3, 12 & 20, 2023]. These visitors mainly concentrated on the Sculpture Porcelain Factory site and Taoxichuan Ceramic Industrial Zone. The Sculpture Porcelain Factory site's success can largely be attributed to the Letian Pottery Workshop (乐天陶社), a community-driven space providing interactive porcelain-making experiences. Taoxichuan gained popularity from a nationwide livestreaming festival in February 2023, and its night market is characterised by a sizeable number of young stall owners who concurrently engage in on-site and livestreaming sales. However, at both sites, the volume of purchases did not rebound as swiftly as the influx of visitors. The post-COVID customers typically purchase lower priced products [Interviewee 3, 2023].

Jingdezhen's historically renowned markets, such as the Teaware Market Building, Guomao Porcelain Market, and Jinchangli Porcelain Market, have benefited little from the resurgence of nonlocal visitors. In these markets, only a handful of shops remain open during evening hours, consistent with our observations during the 2021 and 2022 field trips. In other words, Jingdezhen's porcelain industry shows few indications of reverting to its pre-pandemic state. Contrarily, some trends that materialised during COVID, such as the burgeoning growth of livestreaming sales and the ongoing deterioration of offline transactions in conventional teaware and tableware markets, seem to have endured.

COVID's adverse impacts on Jingdezhen's porcelain industry

Before COVID, the primary consumer group for Jingdezhen's porcelain was nonlocal tourists. They usually started tours from the magnificent downtown showrooms. Guests would then be invited to visit factories and workshops, where many eventually purchased products or placed orders [Interviewee 20, 2018]. This sales strategy functioned well for many before COVID. It was common for visitors to order “1,000 to 2,000 sets of tableware at a time” [Interviewees 20 & 37, 2018]. However, these visitors, by and large, disappeared from Jingdezhen between February 2020 and February 2021. Even after February 2021, the number of such visitors remains low [Interviewee 10, 2021]. Our field observation in October 2021 found that more than 90% of the people in major Jingdezhen porcelain markets were locals.

The decrease in visitor numbers affected the ability to sell products via trade fairs. For example, the annual JPE was formerly one of the most important trade events, but the 2021 fair disappointed many interviewees. For example, Interviewee 12 [2021] received no orders during the event. Likewise, Interviewee 19 [2021] reported “significantly fewer visitors” than in pre-COVID years, speculating that online sales may have taken the JPE’s place. The lack of trade fair visitors has interrupted the traditional processes of attracting new clients.

COVID also brought changes in demand. Since the early 2000s, workshops employing renowned masters of fine art porcelains have been popular [Interviewee 23, 2018]. Demand was also strong for fine quality utilitarian porcelain and teaware [Interviewee 20, 23 & 37, 2018]. These products were typically bought as expensive gifts. Even before COVID, their sales had declined after Beijing initiated an anti-corruption campaign that significantly reduced formal gift-giving practices in 2012 [Interviewees 28, 29, 30 & 31, 2018]. COVID further worsened the trend because many wealthy clients were subject to the financial crunch [Interviewee 25, 2021]. The studies of Hylland et al. (2022) in Europe found a similar phenomenon where patrons and clients cut their spending on culture due to the challenging economic conditions post-COVID. The loss of in-person visits particularly impacted fine art porcelain sales, where seeing and feeling the quality of an item has long been an essential component of most sales [Interviewee 1 & 9, 2021]. Despite the significant resurgence of visitors to Jingdezhen since January 2023, the sales of fine art and high-quality utilitarian porcelains have yet to recover [Interviewee 3, 2023].

Beyond the decline in domestic sales, COVID also seriously disrupted international trade. Significant orders were cancelled for many reasons, including declining foreign consumer confidence, logistical problems and increasing global political tension [Interviewees 3 & 22, 2021]. Furthermore, COVID-related border controls and travel restrictions prevented foreign traders from visiting Jingdezhen. Consequently, major international trade fairs were cancelled or moved online, including the famous biannual Canton Fair. As a result, it became difficult to attract new foreign customers [Interviewees 23, 2021].

In addition, COVID caused significant increases in raw material prices and shipping costs. As a result, many Jingdezhen practitioners had to raise the prices of their products. Interviewee 7 [2021], for example, revealed that the price of many products from their studio increased by 30% between 2019 and 2021. Consequently, these products became less competitive in international markets, losing customers. For example, despite easing COVID-related restrictions, the trade in exporting traditional sculptures to Southeast Asia has not experienced any resurgence [Interviewee 3, 2023].

Strategies to address COVID challenges

In response to COVID's adverse impacts on Jingdezhen's porcelain industry, public agencies and private actors have employed many strategies to cope with the challenges. These strategies have been varied both in their effectiveness and their impacts.

Government strategies

Worldwide, it was typical for specific programmes and emergency aid packages offered to cultural industries struggling due to COVID (Dümcke, 2021; Hylland, 2022; Hylland et al., 2022). China's central and local governments implemented relief schemes to support small businesses amid COVID, many of which covered Jingdezhen's porcelain practitioners. For example, in 2020, the State Administration of Taxation cut value-added tax, corporate income tax, property tax, and building fees for cultural industries and activities. In addition, Jingdezhen's municipal government also offered direct financial subsidies [Interviewee 23, 2021], provided rent-free venues [Interviewee 3, 2021], and increased export tax rebate rates [Interviewee 22, 2021] for porcelain workshops. Many of these measures remained effective in early 2023 [Interviewee 12, 2023].

In addition to providing direct financial assistance, the local government in Jingdezhen organised Porcelain Expos to generate new marketing opportunities. However, while these events attracted new clientele for some porcelain workshops, they did not benefit all equally [Interviewee 23, 2021]. Some public spaces, including the lobby of a government-owned four-star hotel, were asked to display and sell porcelains from local practitioners. Furthermore, in November 2022, in cooperation with various national and local professional associations, Jingdezhen's municipal government introduced an online platform enabling customers to authenticate their porcelains [Interviewee 41, 2023].

Our fieldwork reveals that these government strategies primarily benefited the well-established porcelain workshops. Smaller porcelain workshops struggled to attract the attention of local governments [Interviewee 1, 2021]. Moreover, tax deductions did not advantage them as much due to the small scale of their production [Interviewee 3, 2021]. A similar concern about equity in the distribution of government fiscal aid has emerged in other countries (Dümcke, 2021, p. 23). Some interviewees expressed concern about the local government's effectiveness in creating market opportunities. For example, Interviewee 1 [2021] pointed out that initiatives such as providing free booths to university students to sell their porcelains amid the “zero COVID” policy were “a show”, as most visitors to these booths were locals who hardly made any purchases.

This disparity in benefits raises essential questions about the role of government measures in shaping market dynamics within the porcelain industry. The favourable benefits towards well-established workshops may inadvertently perpetuate existing market inequalities, hindering the growth of smaller enterprises. Such a skewed distribution of aid reveals a potential misalignment between government strategies and the diverse needs of the creative industry. It underscores the necessity for more nuanced relief policies sensitive to the diversity of scales and challenges within the cultural and creative sector. Addressing this imbalance is essential to ensure equitable support and cultivate a dynamic and fair porcelain market that thrives on innovation and inclusivity.

Various strategies by craft practitioners

When COVID first hit, many practitioners had little choice but to adopt a “wait-and-see” approach. The more successful practitioners often had made significant investments in fixed assets before COVID, owning workshops and showrooms [Interviewees 8, 9 & 17, 2021]. When public health restrictions made it impossible to continue producing and selling porcelains in large volumes, some furloughed employees, taking on more aspects of the business themselves to reduce labour costs [Interviewees 1 & 25, 2021]. Others cancelled the leases on their buildings, moving their businesses online or back home [Interviewee 21, 2021]. Consequently, many of the more successful practitioners in the pre-COVID era managed to see their businesses survive through COVID by downsizing their operational scale. However, not all porcelain makers and sellers had the economic strength to withstand even a short-term drop in trade volume. The layoffs amid COVID most seriously impacted those craft practitioners who had not become well-established before COVID. Many were forced to find work in other industries, as in many other countries, amongst self-employed artists and craftspeople in the cultural and creative sectors (Comunian & England, 2020).

As the public health restrictions gradually eased after the initial lockdowns, many practitioners sought to resume their businesses. Many had to rely primarily on their existing clients [Interviewees 12, 20, 23 & 25, 2021] because they could not attract new clients. One practitioner attributed most of their sales amid COVID to their marketing to their friends via WeChat [Interviewee 3, 2021]. Due to difficulties getting new clients, many practitioners had to downsize their businesses or reduce operating hours [Interviewee 10, 2021]. Some ultimately gave up on the international market, at least temporarily [Interviewee 3, 2021]. Even after the “zero COVID” policy, many older practitioners have continued to rely on their existing clientele and are struggling to attract new customers [Interviewees 20 & 39, 2023].

In response to the challenging marketing circumstances, many practitioners made the uneasy choice also to adjust their products, often placing market needs above their artistic and aesthetic preferences. For example, despite “making traditional porcelain sculptures for over three decades”, Interviewee 3 [2021] pivoted to producing modern tableware and dinnerware that appeals to “the modern aesthetic tastes of young people”. Interviewee 24 [2018, 2021] explained that practitioners tended to “sell what they made” before COVID, but many had to “make what they can sell” to survive at the time of the interview. This trend seems unaltered despite the relaxation of the “zero COVID” policy and the resurgence of visitors.

In addition to adjusting products, many practitioners explored ways to extend their market reach. For example, some attended exhibitions and expos, aiming not at getting direct orders but at extending social and professional networks [Interviewees 16 & 22, 2021]. Others became involved in networks of porcelain and tea enthusiasts, hoping to cultivate more prospective consumers [Interviewee 7, 2021]. A few have started hands-on porcelain-making workshops so as to provide an immersive visitor experience [Interviewee 14, 2023].

However, a more widely adopted strategy has been to move some or all of their sales online, which has created opportunities for many young people to join the industry as livestreaming salespeople [Interviewee 6, 2021]. Beyond the mainstream livestreaming platforms like Douyin (抖音, TikTok's Chinese version), some technology companies have developed specialised online porcelain sales platforms. These allow customers to obtain information regarding each porcelain workshop, prices, the kiln, and the manufacturing techniques, as well as setting up one-on-one virtual meetings with the craftspeople [Interviewee 1, 2021]. This trend persists today, and it has been successful for some. For instance, in 2022, Interviewee 41 [2023] sold nearly all his porcelains through Douyin livestreaming sales events, generating a turnover of over 1 million yuan (approximately US$145,000) per event.

Mixed impacts and unequal opportunities of livestreaming

Globally, cultural industries increasingly use digital marketing and social media (Poell et al., 2022). COVID brought a burgeoning global plethora of digital approaches, platforms, and initiatives (Dümcke, 2021). In China, COVID significantly accelerated live-streaming e-commerce on platforms like Douyin and Kuaishou (Liu, 2020). Unlike traditional e-commerce platforms such as Taobao (淘宝, China's equivalent of eBay), which by and large reproduces sales activities akin to a traditional shop, the new livestreaming marketing mode “prioritises real-time interactions with prospective customers” [Interviewee 2, 2021]. The big-data tools embedded in livestreaming platforms also enable engaged practitioners to “collect, monitor, and analyse potential market trends”, adjusting their products and performance so that they can “meet the customer needs more precisely” [Interviewee 21, 2021]. Moreover, “traditional sales consist of many one-time contacts with clients”, but “livestreaming can create a sense of community” between producers and consumers [Interviewee 19, 2021], boosting both sales and the social network of producers.

Livestreaming sales remain highly important in 2023, even after the return of visitors who contributed to traditional sales [Interviewee 40, 2023]. It has largely replaced the traditional “showroom plus workshop tours” as the primary sales strategy, especially for cheaper, lower-end porcelains [Interviewee 7, 2021]. Unlike traditional showrooms, which require extensive investments in fixed assets before the commencement of business, livestreaming showrooms can be set up at home. As a result, less-established practitioners can market their porcelains nationwide or globally, challenging the existing power structures of Jingdezhen's porcelain industry. “In the past, young craftspeople from humble backgrounds had little chance to get their work seen by the public” because “senior masters controlled the market”; the emergence of online marketing has placed “customer recognition and appreciation” – rather than patronage – at the centre of junior craftspeople's career progression [Interviewee 4, 2021].

It is still too early to assess how the emergence of livestreaming will reshape Jingdezhen's porcelain industry. Roigé et al. (2021) have claimed that COVID has prompted resilience, reinvention, and creativity in the heritage industry. Still, our preliminary findings indicate that experiences in the Chinese craft sector vary. For example, major livestreaming platforms are less beneficial to practitioners specialising in expensive, high-end porcelains because these platforms seldom reach their potential buyers [Interviewee 7, 2021]. Some small regional retailers have also lost out significantly because they cannot cope with the lower prices and more options online [Interviewee 1, 2021]. Livestreaming has also affected a significant number of intermediaries in the porcelain industry, such as brokers, dealers, merchants, wholesalers, distributors and retailers, whose roles are challenged by direct links between the buyers and sellers; however, high-end product transactions may still depend on dealers because they are much more trusted than livestreaming sellers, particularly among affluent customers [Interviewee 5, 2023].

The rise of livestreaming in Jingdezhen's craft porcelain industry reveals a generational divide, with younger practitioners more inclined to adopt the practice. This divide underscores the digital natives’ advantage in utilising digital tools in creative and marketing processes. Such an advantage enhances the visibility and reach of their work. It opens up novel interaction channels between practitioners and customers, transforming traditional craft into a more interactive and accessible art form. However, this digital proficiency also presents challenges, such as the risk of diluting the essence of craftsmanship in the pursuit of online engagement, raising questions about the balance between tradition and innovation.

Indeed, new terms or concepts have been coined in livestreaming, causing mixed reactions in Jingdezhen's porcelain industry. For example, some practitioners label specific wood-fired antique kilns as “premium kilns” (一线窑口), differentiating their products from others so that they can justify higher prices for their porcelains [Interviewees 6 & 7, 2021]. Others dislike this shift. Interviewee 25 [2021] denounced the concept of “premium kilns” as a “recent marketing construct”, pointing out that these kilns were not selected or recognised by experienced craftspeople with in-depth professional knowledge. Moreover, with the resurgence of visitors to Jingdezhen, the sales of the so-called “premium kilns” witnessed a significant drop in 2023. Many interviewees attributed this shift to customer disapproval of the new concept [Interviewees 1, 3, & 41, 2023]. Other interviewees raised concerns about relevant false advertising on livestreaming platforms [Interviewee 4, 2021; Interviewee 5, 2023].

These mixed reactions towards new terms and concepts coined on livestreaming platforms highlight a tension between traditional craftsmanship values and modern marketing tactics. While these new terms and concepts, such as “premium kilns”, create opportunities for innovative branding and storytelling, they also risk oversimplifying or misrepresenting the intricate processes and historical significance inherent in Jingdezhen's traditional porcelain craftsmanship, triggering practitioners and researchers alike to be concerned that the pursuit of online popularity may overshadow the authentic representation of the craft. Such confusion and concerns arising among customers and practitioners reflect a broader challenge in the cultural and creative industry: maintaining the integrity and heritage of traditional craftsmanship in the digital age, on the one hand, while evolving and innovating to meet contemporary market demands on the other.

The shift from traditional e-commerce to livestreaming platforms in Jingdezhen resonates with the findings of (2020), who explored how digital technologies reshape consumer practices in Portugal's art and craft markets. Livestreaming offers a unique blend of real-time interaction, personal storytelling, and direct engagement with the audience, which traditional e-commerce platforms lack (Wongkitrungrueng et al., 2020). In Jingdezhen's porcelain industry, livestreaming has allowed craft practitioners to share their creative process, discuss their inspirations, and demonstrate their skills live, creating a deeper connection with their audience. This immediacy is especially beneficial in the craft industry, where the story behind the creation of a product can be as crucial to the customers as the product itself due to the pursuit of authenticity (Thurnell-Read, 2019) and distinctiveness (Garavaglia, 2020).

However, as revealed in our study, the evolution of global digital technologies – especially the “digital pivot” triggered by COVID – places profoundly uneven impacts on craft practitioners. While digital platforms offer new opportunities to those who can handle them well (Cunningham et al., 2019), they also require new skills and resources that might not be readily available to all practitioners (Holcombe-James, 2022). Therefore, although the “digital pivot” may create new opportunities for some, especially those less-established younger craft practitioners, it also reinforces the pre-existing “digital divide” in and beyond the craft industry (Thonipara et al., 2023). In addition, although not particularly visible in Jingdezhen, research from other places shows that the “digital pivot” could strengthen the positions of big digital platforms vis-à-vis individual and small producers of crafts and accelerate the “financialisation” of the craft economy (Ithurbide & Singh, 2022). The long-term impacts of these profound shifts in power structures within the craft industry warrant close and continuous monitoring.

Concluding remarks: a long COVID for the craft industry

Drawing upon fieldwork in China’s “Porcelain Capital” between September 2018 and March 2023, this study examines how COVID has impacted China’s craft industries. Our fieldwork reveals that since early 2020, Jingdezhen’s porcelain industry has undergone profound changes due to COVID. From February to April 2020, lockdowns halted the industry, causing losses and unpaid leave. Recovery was gradual from May 2020, hindered by travel restrictions and health worries. Post-February 2021, the industry turned to online sales, particularly livestreaming, adapting to the “zero COVID” policy. The lifting of this policy in early 2023 brought back visitors, but the industry’s return to pre-pandemic levels remains limited, with uneven benefits across markets.

COVID has had significant adverse impacts on Jingdezhen’s porcelain industry, much like the cultural and creative sectors globally. Beyond the collapse in visitor numbers, it affected trade fairs, made it challenging to acquire new clients, and resulted in business closures and the loss of existing customers. Changes in mobility patterns and the decline in demand for gift porcelains exacerbated these challenges. International trade also faced considerable difficulties. Orders were cancelled because increasing shipping costs and rising raw material prices made Jingdezhen’s craft products less competitive globally. Despite the return to pre-pandemic mobility, the porcelain industry has yet to experience a substantial recovery in visitor numbers, local sales, or international trade.

As the Jingdezhen case illustrates, a particularly striking outcome has been the increased inequality among practitioners and businesses within the industry. A primary contributor is the unequal access to resources among practitioners. Significant disparities exist between public-sector and private-sector employees in China before and amid COVID (Gu et al., 2021; Liu et al., 2023). Our findings further reveal that COVID substantially worsened the inequality among cultural and creative practitioners within the private sector. Well-established practitioners and businesses have benefitted more from government-initiated COVID relief programmes, primarily thanks to their economies of scale. Their accumulated assets also better positioned them to take on COVID-related travel restrictions and economic downturns, often by downsizing operations. Conversely, less-established private craft practitioners, who frequently confronted economic insecurity before COVID due to the inherently precarious nature of their work, encountered more significant challenges in leveraging government relief schemes. These findings highlight the need to scrutinise the uneven impacts that seemingly non-discriminatory policies have, especially in countries like China, where the state has a heavy influence in shaping cultural and creative industries (Tao & Griffith, 2018, 2019; Xu et al., 2022; Xu & Tao, 2022b).

Our findings also illuminate the complex implications of the COVID-triggered “digital pivot” in culture and creative sectors. For instance, within Jingdezhen's porcelain industry, livestreaming sales have emerged as a prominent marketing approach, allowing participating practitioners to engage in real-time interactions with prospective clients and utilise big data tools for market analysis. Livestreaming has empowered some less-established practitioners by offering wider exposure. However, its impact on inequality within the craft industry has been multifaceted. This digital transformation, especially through livestreaming, has intensified the generational divide, with younger, tech-savvy artisans gaining an edge through their adept use of platforms like TikTok, making personality and appearance increasingly significant in marketing. Conversely, small regional retailers struggle to compete with online giants offering lower prices and broader choices, highlighting the disruptive nature of digitalisation that often favours scalability. Moreover, the direct-to-consumer model facilitated by livestreaming, while eliminating intermediaries and introducing new terminologies, has created new market segregation and challenged traditional professional norms. Although this digital shift has opened avenues for dynamism and global exposure, it has also made it challenging for consumers to assess the tactile quality of porcelain, an essential aspect of high-end crafts, thus potentially diluting the value of fine art in favour of mass appeal. In essence, the digital pivot within Jingdezhen's porcelain industry represents a structural shift characterised by empowerment and disparity, signifying a profound evolution in the interaction between tradition and modernity in the craft sector.

In summary, although COVID introduced new prospects for some craft practitioners, it predominately exposed and exacerbated structural inequalities within the craft industry. Moreover, these reinforced inequalities have endured even after public health restrictions were lifted. In essence, the craft industry seems to be grappling with the lingering effects of a “long COVID”, which seems likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Several policy recommendations arise from our findings in Jingdezhen that can promote the broader resilience and equitable growth of craft industries within China experiencing this “long COVID”. First, ad hoc relief measures are insufficient to reduce disparities in the craft industry due to inequitable opportunity access. Therefore, targeted government support for emerging private craft practitioners is crucial to mitigate their disproportionately heavier challenges. Second, the government should foster digital literacy and technological adaptation, overcoming generational and knowledge gaps. Third, as revealed by existing literature on China's local governance (e.g. Tao & Liu, 2013; Tao et al., 2020), inclusive policy dialogues encompassing practitioners’ views across the industry are also essential, ensuring future policies meet the sector's varied needs. These approaches, we believe, will lead to a more resilient and equitable industry in the post-pandemic landscape.

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the institutional support from the School of Social Sciences at the University of Western Australia (UWA) and the School of Tourism at Nanchang University. The interviews for this project were conducted under a UWA Ethics Clearance (RA/4/20/4387). We sincerely thank the 41 interviewees who provided much of their time and offered their experiences and opinions to this research. We would also like to thank Mr Xu Zhonghua and Mrs Liang Shenghua, who offered substantial help for our investigation in Jingdezhen in 2018, 2021, 2022 and 2023. The views expressed in this paper are our own and may not reflect the views of those who have supported our research.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work is supported by the National Social Science Fund of China Foundation of China [grant number: 22CGL072], the College of Humanities & Social Science Research Base Project of Jiangxi Province & Social Science Research Base Project of Jiangxi Province [grant number: JD22087], and the Cross-border Communication of Fine Traditional Chinese Culture Research Project of Nanchang University [grant number: NCUCTWH202321].