BEIJING, July 10 -- Chinese ceramic and pottery artists should develop their own distinctive styles and widen their horizons to grab a bigger share in the world market, said experts attending a seminar upon the opening of the first and largest exhibition of ceramics at the National Art Museum of China.

       "Strengthening such areas as design and quality control would help Chinese ceramic enterprises, which are just sharing marginal profits with their powerful Western partners, to build up their own brands in global markets," said Yang Zipeng, chairman of China Society of Ceramic and Pottery Art and director of China Ceramic Industry Association.

       China now produces at least 15 billion pieces of ceramic products for daily use each year, accounting for 60 per cent of the world's total output, Yang said.

       Although China is a major ceramics producer and exporter, the industry has been plagued by many problems over the past few years, such as low sale prices, low added value and lack of competitiveness in the global market.

       Besides, there are very few well-known domestic and internationally visible brand name products, he said. "I believe our artists and art academies can surely play a more active role either in pushing forward Chinese ceramic and pottery art or contributing to the growth of local economies," Yang said.

       Yang's view is echoed, though from different angles, by some 50 art educators, historians, critics and artists from across the country concerned with the future development of China's ceramic and pottery art and related industries.

       "One issue that troubles me most is the identity of contemporary Chinese ceramic and pottery art," said Gao Zhenyu, a researcher with the National Research Institute of Chinese Arts and a veteran artist from Jingdezhen, East China's Jiangxi Province, where the ceramic industry has a history of more than 1,700 years.

       When China entered its era of reforms and opening up in the early 1980s, "Chinese artists, after years of isolation, suddenly found themselves immersed in an overwhelming influx of ideas and trends about Western art," said Gao.

       Some Chinese artists have chosen to cling to the centuries-old traditions.

       But many others have been trying hard to catch up with the latest trends and considered the traditional techniques, ideas and aesthetics of ceramic and pottery to be "backward, old-fashioned, and obstructive to their own artistic creations," he said.

       As a result, "de-constructing the traditions" has become the motto of these ambitious artists and their works are very often, if not always, similar to those made by their Western counterparts, he continued.

       "Yes, they never lag behind the trends. And their works can arrest as much attention as works by Western artists do at international exhibitions. But how can they distinguish themselves as artists from China?" Gao questioned.

       Li Yanzu, an art professor from the Beijing-based Tsinghua University School of Art and Design, agreed.

       "Something has gone wrong with education on ceramic and pottery art in colleges and universities," Li said. "It is a disturbing fact that the present-day ceramic and pottery courses and curricula in China focus on Western ideas and techniques while traditional ideas, techniques in this field from China have been largely ignored."

       Today, among more than 1,000 Chinese institutions of higher education, about 100 offer courses or majors on ceramic and pottery art.

       However, only a small number of trained students would choose to become ceramist or industrial designer upon graduation, according to Li.

       Zhang Shouzhi, a retired professor of Tsinghua University School of Art and Design, said ceramic arts have become an "indispensable part of daily life" in the 21st century, and artists should not indulge themselves only in their studios and small communities.

       Zhang has played an active role in bringing Chinese artists and entrepreneurs together to boost the growth of China's ceramics and pottery industry over the past decade. "Ceramic and pottery art can now be widely applied to such areas as urban construction, landscape art, interior decoration and industrial design to help create better, prettier, more comfortable and sustainable lifestyles and living spaces for people," Zhang said.