In the Face of Instability and Marginalisation in a Gendered Craft Industry: Self-Realisation and Resilience of the Self-employed Craftswomen in Jingdezhen, China

Abstract

Through a four-month ethnographic study from May to August 2020 in Jingdezhen, the Chinese capital of porcelain, I investigated the self-employment practice and work-and-lifestyles of the female craft workers. Despite the increasing presence of female self-employed craft workers in Jingdezhen in the recent decade, its local ceramic labor distribution continues to be gendered. This study incorporated a variety of qualitative methods such as in-depth interviews, participant observations and diary method. Despite the self-realization of female craft workers in Jingdezhen through self-employed craft work, I firstly highlight the instability embedded in their craft work, marginalization of craftswomen’s roles and works and selfdoubtfulness on creativity. I argue that the frequent critiques of craftswomen’s ceramic works have generalized them as being domestic and feminine and ignored their diverse skills, aesthetics, and artistic dispositions. I also suggest that such generalization has further marginalized ‘femininity’ in ceramic cultures and productions. Secondly, I recognize the difficulties that the craftswomen have encountered in non-workplaces and the pressures from family and social expectations and argue that the allegedly ‘work and life balance challenge’ set for women overshadows their compromises and sacrifices in their craft journey. By showcasing my interlocutors’ ‘minor’ feelings and reflecting on my own fieldwork experience, I reveal a gendered power relationship in personal interactions at an everyday level continued to exist in Jingdezhen’s craft world. I finally argue that while self-employment and craft are empowering practices and have offered the craftswomen opportunities to fulfill their potentials, independent craftswomen in Jingdezhen still suffer from instability, marginalization, societal expectations, daily disrespect in the local male-dominated industrial context. Meanwhile, I showcase their resilience against this background by demonstrating how they negotiate these difficulties and pressures.