Caicifang Porcelain Workshop

Top choice in Beijing


This charming boutique upcycles shards of porcelain vases smashed during the Cultural Revolution into unique and desirable jewellery, boxes, ornaments and art pieces. You can pay ¥50 for a shard fridge magnet, or a few hundred for a metal box inset with the character for 'double happiness', a common decorative motif on blue-and-white porcelain. English-speaking staff have a wealth of porcelain-related knowledge.

A tenet of Mao's Cultural Revolution was to smash the 'four olds' (old customs, culture, habits and ideas), a campaign that began in Beijing in 1966. Poor old porcelain never stood a chance, sacrificed by households to the rampaging Red Guards in the hope that they would overlook smaller valuables such as jewellery, which were easier to squirrel away.


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