To produce Longquan celadon pottery, dozens of steps are needed before firing, such as carving patterns, sticking together different parts, glazing and making tiny adjustments. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]

Family business

After graduation, Chen Guo went to work in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province. One year later, she was asked to return home to Longquan by her mother, Chen Shaoqing, an established potter who learned the craft from her mother.

Chen Guo's college major had nothing to do with pottery. However, she is keen to follow her mother and grandmother and continue the craft in their spirit.

"It's like a mission passed down through families," says the young woman.

Since childhood, celadon pottery has been part of her life. Her toys were pieces of ceramic, and she played at the factory where her mother worked.

Products of Chen Shaoqing have long been selected by the nation as diplomatic gifts for foreign guests who visit China. As a daughter and apprentice to her mother, Chen Guo chooses to combine the celadon glaze with modern pottery designs.

Many of Chen Guo's buyers are young people, and she sells her products through online livestreams, while her mother's customers are mostly people in or above middle age who choose to purchase items in more traditional ways.

Many young people like Chen Guo choose to stay in Longquan, where, for generations, glaze formulas and pottery techniques have been handed down within families or through teachers.

Xia Houhui also learned the craft of making celadon-glazed pottery from his father, Xia Houwen, a national-level inheritor of Longquan celadon. The 88-year-old master made the gifts that were presented to former US president Richard Nixon when he visited China in 1972.

Inheriting the gift from his father, Xia Houhui is now a provincial-level inheritor of Longquan celadon. His father always tells him that the beauty of celadon pottery can last for centuries. "The more you look at it, the more you love it. It's not a love at first sight," says Xia Houwen at the studio he shares with his son.

Xia Houhui agrees with his father that the charm is timeless.

He plans to ask his own son to continue the family's craftsmanship spirit. The youngest Xia is still at college majoring in data and journalism.

"Each generation has their own unique expression of the traditional craft. It helps the craft to live on," says Xia Houhui.

Potters work at a kiln in Xitou village in Longquan, Zhejiang province. [Photo by Jiang Dong/China Daily]