Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico: The Material Worlds of an Early Modern Trade by Meha Priyadarshini (review)

Meha Priyadarshini argues that while objects such as feather paintings receive attention because they evoke the violent history of colonial Mexico, Chinese ceramics have been neglected because they involve trade with Asia and are perceived to have less ‘political value’ (p. 101). This compact, beautifully written study addresses that neglect, examining every aspect of the trade in a way that makes it essential reading for those interested in art history, material culture, global trade, and the Spanish settlement of the Philippines and Mexico.

The first of six illustrated chapters, ‘Introduction: A Global Commodity in the Transpacific Trade’, explores how and why Chinese porcelain was exported to Mexico. The focus of the second is Jingdezhen, the source of these ceramics, and the third is Manila, their major destination. The point is made that Chinese merchants traded goods, including Jingdezhen-made ceramics, across the South China Sea, to Luzon and the other islands of the Philippines long before the arrival of Europeans in the region. When European traders arrived in this established ‘intercultural space’ they did not demand anything that the Chinese were not already accustomed to providing (pp. 64–70). Yet, their arrival certainly increased demand, making Jingdezhen ‘the porcelain capital of the world’ and Manila a global trading hub.

The author evokes the skilled and meticulous nature of ceramics and porcelain production, where the skilled and intensive labour required of the potters and painters was matched by expertise of those packing these delicate items for export to Manila and beyond. Indeed, Manila became such an important port because of the involvement of Chinese merchants and labourers, and by 1603 there were 20,000 Chinese residing in and around Manila, compared with only around a thousand Spaniards (pp. 65–66). As Manila was planned and funded by the Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico), essentially a colony was controlling a colony, leading to tensions between Spanish colonists and Chinese artisans and merchants. The Parián—the large enclosed marketplace beyond Manila’s walls where Chinese goods were sold—was often destroyed as hostilities erupted between the two. Despite such interruptions to trade, the fact that the central marketplace in Mexico City also became known as the Parián indicates the hold that Asian goods and Manila had on the popular imagination (pp. 72–79).

Chapters 4 and 5 focus on the urban centres of Acapulco, Mexico City and Puebla, and on the local aesthetic that emerged from the importation of Chinese ceramics into Mexico. Acapulco was established as a port to receive Manila galleons. Although usually only one galleon came a year, its arrival instigated weeks of frantic activity and a fair that became famous around the world. Most of the goods that arrived were transported by Indigenous labourers along the 280 miles of ‘difficult terrain’ known as the Camino de China (pp. 103–06, 170). As such commodities, including ceramics, came ‘unmediated through Spain’, they were adopted and appropriated in ways specific to local needs and tastes. Religious institutions and wealthy consumers in Mexico began ordering custom-made objects, such as vessels decorated with insignia or heraldic crest. Mancerinas (cups for drinking chocolate) were also ordered from Jingdezhen. This meant that, while in Europe Chinese cups were filled with Chinese tea, in Mexico they were filled with chocolate (pp. 83, 120). Alongside this demand for Chinese-made ceramics grew a demand for locally produced vessels. The stylistic choices Mexicans made rendered their work unique, and quite different from ceramics produced by Asian-influenced potters in Spain. Although Chinese figures were incorporated into the painted scenes, so were local motifs. For example, the quetzal, a Mexican bird, replaced the Chinese phoenix (pp. 102, 153, 171–73). The craftsmen of Puebla in particular incorporated aspects of Chinese ceramics, such as the blue and white aesthetic, into their earthenware...