CANTON ENAMEL

Chinese painted enamel, so named for the principal place of its manufacture, Canton. Painted-enamel techniques were originally developed in Limoges, Fr., from about 1470. These techniques were introduced into China in the 18th century, probably by French missionaries. This is reflected in the translation of the Chinese term for painted enamels, foreign porcelain. A metal object, usually copper but sometimes silver or gold, is covered with a background layer of enamel (often white), is fired, and then is painted with coloured enamels much as are porcelains. The finished piece is then fired again. A thriving industry for the manufacture and export of Canton enamels grew up in the 18th century. More refined enamels made in the emperor's workshops and in private shops in Peking also became popular export items. Most of the Canton enamels used the famille rose colours peculiar to Europe. Some of this foreign porcelain became the medium for humour and satire, often caricaturing foreigners. The quality of Canton enamels began to deteriorate at the end of the 18th century, but they were still made in large numbers during the 19th century. History The early period The earliest known inhabitants of the Canton area were the Pai Yeh, a Tai, or Shan, people. At the beginning of the Western Chou dynasty (c. 1111771 BC), their chief built a walled town, known as Nan-wu Ch'eng, in the northern section of the present-day city. In 887 BC the town was taken by the mid-Yangtze kingdom of Ch'u and was known as Wu-yang Ch'eng (City of Five Goats). Under the Ch'in dynasty Canton was made the capital of Nan-hai prefecture. Upon the fall of the Ch'in, Gen. Chao T'o (died 137 BC) established an autonomous state known as Nan Yeh, which was annexed in 111 BC by the Han dynasty. For the next 300 years Chinese assimilation of the Yeh people proceeded, and integration of the region into the empire took firm root. During the four centuries from the Three Kingdoms to the founding of the T'ang dynasty in AD 618, when North China was overrun by barbarian invaders, Canton remained a part of the Chinese regimes based in Nanking. During this period the city grew in wealth and population; Buddhist temples were erected, and a flourishing community was maintained by Arab and Hindu traders. Peace and prosperity were further augmented under the T'ang (618907). An auxiliary wall and settlement were built on Y Hill, but the city suffered much destruction during the civil strife at the end of the dynasty. Under the Sung dynasty (9601279) the increase in Canton's population and the growth of foreign trade made it necessary to enlarge the city. A second auxiliary wall and settlement were constructed on P'an Hill in the late 11th century. With the settlements on the twin hills, the city took on the name P'an-y (hence the name of the county in which Canton is now located). Under the Southern Sung (11271279) Chinese seamen and traders sailed to Southeast Asia, thus opening the way for Chinese emigration abroad in subsequent ages. In the late 13th century and throughout the 14th, many Chinese families from North China moved into the Kwangtung region in the wake of the Mongol conquest. A booming economy resulted as the Yan rulers (12061368) encouraged maritime trade and kept Chinese-Mongol race relations under control. Under the Ming dynasty (13681644) the city underwent considerable rebuilding and expansion. In 1380 the P'an and Y hills were razed, and the old town and the two auxiliary districts were combined into one large walled city. In 1535 an outer wall was added to incorporate the new commercial districts on the north bank of the Pearl. Meanwhile, the pattern of foreign trade changed as the supremacy of the Arabs ended with the coming of the Europeans. The Portuguese sent their first embassy to Canton in the early 1500s, followed by the Dutch and the British in the 17th century. Canton came under the rule of the Ch'ing (Manchu) dynasty from 1644 to 1911/12. Recognizing the importance of the city, the government made it the capital of the Viceroyalty of Kwangtung and Kwangsi. The British East India Company established a factory (foreign traders' residences and business offices) in Canton in 1685, and annual trading operations began in 1699. Throughout the 18th century French, Dutch, American, and other nationals also established trade relations with the city; the 13 factories were located on the waterfront. Trade moved without undue difficulty until friction began to mount in the 1820s. The foreigners found trade restrictions (through licensed Chinese merchants known as Cohong) too irksome, while the Chinese authorities refused to open normal diplomatic relations. The Chinese seized and destroyed large quantities of illegal opium brought in by the British in 1839, and in retaliation the British attacked Chinese positions in the Canton Estuary. The first Opium War (183942) ended in humiliating defeat for China, and the city saved itself from destruction only by paying a $6,000,000 ransom. The Treaty of Nanking (1842) with the United Kingdom opened Canton as a treaty port. In 1844 the French and the Americans obtained similar treaties. Antiforeign sentiment, however, ran high, and the city refused to open its gates until 1857. The coolie trade and the use of foreign flags to protect pirates caused several crises. The second Opium (or Arrow) War broke out between China and Britain and France in 1856. Canton was occupied by Anglo-French forces until 1861, and Sha-mien was made an Anglo-French concession in 1859. Amid the woes of foreign imperialism, Canton was deeply shaken by the great antidynastic outbreak of the Taiping Rebellion (185064), the leader of which, Hung Hsiu-ch'an, was born in the northern Canton suburb of Hua-hsien. Many followers of Hung formed secret societies that kept his revolutionary ideals alive even after the failure of the rebellion. For the next 50 years anti-Manchu agitation formed one of the twin forces that gripped Canton; the other was the rise of nationalism. The modern city Canton came under the spell of its most illustrious son, Sun Yat-sen, from 1885 to 1925. Sun made the city the testing ground for his campaign to overthrow the Manchu dynasty and to establish a Chinese republic. The Canton Uprising of 1911 paved the way for the success of the revolution before the end of the year. Canton became the base of operations for action against the warlords between 1916 and 1925 and served as the headquarters of Sun's party, the Kuomintang. Besides completing his Three Principles of the People, Sun reorganized the Kuomintang in 1924 to reactivate the Nationalist revolution. All manner of people flocked to Cantonthe right- and left-wing members of the Kuomintang, the members of the newly formed Chinese Communist Party, and Soviet advisers. Chiang Kai-shek, Mao Zedong, and Zhou Enlai began their careers in Canton under Sun's tutelage. Chiang gained power when he crushed an uprising by the Canton Merchants Volunteer Corps and defeated the disloyal local warlords (1924). With Sun's death in 1925, however, Canton was embroiled in the power struggle between the Communists and the Nationalists. In 1927 a Communist-led coup attempted to set up a workers' government in the city, only to be crushed by Chiang. From 1928 to 1937 Canton was officially under the control of the Nationalist government, but it was actually controlled by independent leaders, who criticized Chiang's dictatorship and threatened secession from Nanking. In 1937, when war against the Japanese broke out, Canton became a prime target of Japanese air raids. Canton fell in 1938 and remained under Japanese occupation until 1945. Recovery did not begin until the Communist government took control in 1949. The modernization begun in the 1920s continued, although there were periods of hardship during the Great Leap Forward (195860) and Cultural Revolution (196676). New housing and government offices have been built, heavy industry has been introduced, and the city has developed into one of China's centres of foreign trade.