Soulful Pottery:

The location of Li Jin Kiln was made public only some ten years ago, and the workshop has only recently opened its doors to the public. Prior to that, Su Cheng-li had been pursuing his creative practice there under the radar.

Studio pottery and household ware

Su belongs to the fourth generation of a family of potters in New Taipei’s Yingge District, a major hub for Taiwan’s ceramics industry. Su’s great-grandfather set up his own kiln in Yingge, and his father, Su Hexiong, founded Jian Xin Kiln. His mother also came from a pottery manufacturing family. Growing up surrounded by clay and ceramics, Su started working at his family’s firm after completing his compulsory military service.

Naturally talented, Su achieved commercial success with his debut work. In 1995 he established his own studio, named Li Jin Kiln by his father.

Inside his studio are displayed some of his early works, sporting the richly mottled tortoiseshell glaze he developed when he was young. There are also several large vases with different shades of cobalt blue evoking misty mountainscapes, adorned with his unique gold-speckled glaze. Other works use a jadeite glaze to give a modern twist to traditional Chinese scroll patterns. These top-notch works of craft have won international awards, and some have entered the collections of mu­seums in Taiwan, South Korea, Argentina, and elsewhere.

But Li Jin Kiln is also known for its series of unassuming plates and bowls that exude an old-timey Taiwanese charm. Characteristically, their rims are painted a delicate pale blue, and their bodies show images such as fish, shrimps, crabs, bamboo fences, pineapples, persimmons, peonies, and cherry blossoms, all of which are common in traditional Taiwanese culture, capturing a nostalgic sense of elegance. Not only are they used by Fujin Tree and other restaurants specializing in Taiwanese cuisine, but they have won the hearts of Japanese customers, who can’t help exclaiming “Cute!” when they spot the exquisite crockery.

Su Cheng-li, owner of Li Jin Kiln, belongs to the fourth generation of a family of potters in New Taipei’s Yingge. He is known both for exquisitely crafted art pottery and down-to-earth ware used in everyday contexts.

Stamped with the auspicious Chinese characters fu (“wealth”), fa (“prosperity”), and fu (“good fortune”), these small dishes exude a vintage charm.

The fish, shrimps, and fruit painted inside these bowls symbolize people’s longings for material comfort.

These broad-rimmed rice bowls cater to Taiwanese people’s dining habits.

Finding cultural roots

Su has thus shifted his focus from art pottery to household ware. While serving as chairman of the Chinese Ceramics Association of Taiwan, he led a field trip to Japan, where he was deeply moved by the works of Osamu Suzuki, a Gifu-born ceramicist who was designated in 1994 as a Living National Treasure of Japan.

At historic Japanese pottery workshops, Su was struck by the tenacity with which the Japanese devote themselves to upholding traditional culture, as well as the potters’ unwavering commitment to their craft. He was prompted to reflect on the deeper roots of Taiwan’s own ceramic culture. His thoughts rested upon the tableware he grew up with, those plates and bowls he “woke up to every day.”

Su learned from the expertise of his parents and brought out vintage-style plates and bowls made from a 1:2 blend of Taiwanese pottery clay and Japanese porcelain clay, fired at a high temperature of 1,250°C. The texture is firm and sturdy, with the white body carrying a hint of warm yellow.

The shapes of these products reflect culinary habits in Taiwan. There are broad-rimmed big bowls, smaller bowls that cater to the common practice of using chopsticks to shovel rice straight into the mouth, and shallow dipping bowls for sauces and condiments. 

The rims are coated with a thin layer of water-based cobalt blue paint, while decorative images are painted onto the pieces before a transparent glaze is applied; this underglaze technique has become rare in Taiwan. The paintings range from big shrimps that take some 50 brushstrokes to complete, sweetgum leaves painted with Yingge’s iconic “rouge red,” and bamboo fences that recall rural life, to Su’s favorite fruits such as water­melons and pineapples.

The tactile brushwork conjures up people’s perennial longings for material comfort, emanating a soulful quality that machine-made pottery rarely attains. Carrying the weight of time, these objects enable the historical textures of Taiwanese culture to be passed down to posterity through everyday use.