The Chairman's choice

Every piece of art tells a story about the culture that produced it. A recent exhibition at the Capital Museum on the Liling under-glazed porcelain is a case in point.

Liling, a small town in eastern Hunan province, has abundant reserves of ceramic materials. Different from the traditional Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, Liling under-glazed porcelain is famed for polychrome, with the same refined elegance. In 2008, Liling porcelain was officially recognized as part of the national cultural heritage.

The ongoing exhibition is in three parts: Origins, featuring items produced in the late Qing dynasty, when the industry first flourished. The second part, Treasure, displays household porcelain, especially produced for former leaders such as Chairman Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping. Liling porcelain is used in the government headquarters at Zhongnanhai and is often presented as gifts to foreign leaders, hence the nicknames national porcelain, and red official porcelain.