Biography

Xu Yafeng (徐亚凤), born in April 1940, is a major modern Jingdezhen ceramic artist best known for famille-rose porcelain painting and for carrying forward the Water-Dot technique (水点法). She entered ceramic art training while young, studied at Jingdezhen institutions and graduated in 1958 before beginning a long professional career in China’s ceramic research system.

Ceramic Family & Training

Xu Yafeng belongs to a distinguished Jingdezhen ceramic family. Her grandfather Xu Zhongnan (徐仲南) was one of the artists associated with the Eight Friends of Zhushan (珠山八友). Her uncle and teacher Liu Yucen (刘雨岑), also one of the Eight Friends, became particularly famous for the Water-Dot method of porcelain painting.

Xu began studying famille-rose flower-and-bird painting with Liu Yucen in 1951, creating a direct line from Republican-era Jingdezhen porcelain painting into her own modern practice.

Water-Dot Technique · 水点法

The Water-Dot technique builds flowers through repeated controlled touches of pigment, producing petals with soft transitions, layered color and a sense of moisture and depth. Peach blossom became one of Xu Yafeng’s signature subjects, especially in works associated with 水点桃花.

The 7501 Porcelain Project

In 1975, Xu Yafeng was among the Jingdezhen ceramic artists connected with the special porcelain project later known as 7501 porcelain. Her expertise in flower painting and the Water-Dot tradition placed her within the design and decorative work surrounding one of the best-known state porcelain projects of twentieth-century China.

Recognition & Legacy

Her career includes decades of design and exhibition recognition, and in 2006 she received the national title Chinese Arts & Crafts Master (中国工艺美术大师). Her husband Zhang Songmao (张松茂) and daughter Zhang Hui (张慧) are also ceramic artists, extending the family’s Jingdezhen tradition into another generation.

A Note on Jian-Style Wares

Modern Jian-style bowls, boxes and certificates carrying the name 徐亚凤 also circulate in the market. The authoritative institutional sources for Xu Yafeng, however, identify her primarily as a Jingdezhen porcelain painter and designer, not as a traditional Jian-kiln potter. Her name on a Jian-style object should therefore be interpreted through that object’s own certificate and provenance rather than assumed to mean that she personally formed and fired the bowl.

References