HANGZHOU — Amid a gentle spring drizzle in Longquan city in Zhejiang province, several Bangladeshi painters set up their easels under a traditional covered corridor bridge to capture the sky's blue-green hue, which echoes the signature glaze color of the city's famed celadon.
"People often say the celadon glaze resembles the sky after rain. That is exactly what we see today," said Mong Mong Sho, who came to China in 2012 and now lectures at Yunnan Arts University. Inspired by the scenery, he plans to create new works centered on this distinctive hue.
Sho is among a group of Bangladeshi artists visiting Zhejiang province from April 11 to 12 at the invitation of the Chinese embassy in Bangladesh.
Longquan, with more than 1,000 years of celadon-making history, was a key stop on the trip. The traditional firing technique of Longquan celadon is the world's first and only ceramic craft inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Dating back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279) and the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), celadon porcelain, fired in local kilns, was shipped by waterways from Longquan to Europe, Southeast Asia, West Asia, and Africa, becoming a representative product of the Maritime Silk Road trade network.
"Celadon served not only as 'hard currency' in overseas trade, but also as a medium for the world to understand Chinese aesthetics," said Li Wenxiu, head of the city's bureau of radio, television, tourism, and sports.
Shahidul Alam, a Bangladeshi photographer, agreed, saying the ancient Maritime Silk Road was both a trade route and a bridge connecting civilizations.
"The older Bangladeshi generations first encountered Chinese culture not through books but through ceramics. The landscapes, figures, flowers, and birds painted on those porcelain pieces were our earliest introduction to Chinese art," Sho added.
What impressed Alam most was how China has preserved and passed down the ancient celadon craft to younger generations. Today, more than 300 active celadon kilns operate in Longquan.
"Cultural exchanges help more people understand the heritage passed down through generations behind a single piece of porcelain. They also show how a UNESCO-listed craft originated, developed, and has been preserved and renewed to this day," said Zeng Zhinyu, a representative inheritor of Longquan celadon firing techniques.
"Art speaks a universal language that needs no translation. It bridges linguistic gaps and brings people closer together," Sho said. "Over the past decade, I have joined many Bangladesh-China art exchange events. As close neighbors, more cultural exchanges will deepen our mutual understanding."
