Born in 1977 in Dehua, Fujian, Yan Songliu is a master ceramic artist and founder of Ciyan Workshop. By 2012, at the age of 35, he had already earned the title of Provincial Arts and Crafts Master — one of the leading figures of the younger generation in the Chinese ceramic world. His success is not merely a stroke of “luck” but the result of constant readiness and artistic devotion.

Yan’s work embodies a strong sense of harmony and wholeness, shaped by his upbringing as the only child of scholarly parents. Music, a major part of his childhood, cultivated in him a gentle temperament that translates into balance and completeness in his art. His ceramic development followed two paths — workshop craftsmanship and academic art education. At age 16, Yan apprenticed under Su Yufeng and Su Xianzhong at Yunyu Porcelain Studio, absorbing contrasting styles: Su Yufeng’s bold conceptual expressiveness and Su Xianzhong’s emotional subtlety. These influences became the dual foundation of his later creativity.

Yan later pursued formal training at the Dehua Ceramic Technical School (now Quanzhou Arts and Crafts Vocational College) and continued his studies in sculpture at the Fujian Arts and Crafts School, where he explored Western sculptural methods such as rapid modeling and anatomical study. In 1998, he joined the Central Academy of Arts and Design’s (now Tsinghua University) ceramic program in Dehua, and later audited courses in Beijing, broadening his artistic perspective to include painting, architecture, music, literature, and modern sculpture.

His works often carry profound symbolic meaning. In Galloping with the Spring Breeze, a scholar rides triumphantly on horseback after passing the imperial exam — a metaphor for success following hardship. Rites and Music symbolizes Confucian harmony between heaven, earth, and humanity, while echoing the grandeur of Rio’s Christ the Redeemer. Other pieces such as Shadow of Bamboo Flute, Observing the Crane with a Qin, and Crossing the River on a Reed fuse classical narratives with modern sculptural abstraction, marked by sharp lines and dynamic rhythms reminiscent of Cézanne’s geometric logic.

Yan’s smaller works — Returning Fisherman at Dusk, Zhong Kui, and Serenity by the Southern Hills — exhibit quick, sketch-like spontaneity, departing from traditional Dehua mold casting. These pieces capture the “spirit,” “form,” and “rhythm” of their subjects through expressive hand modeling.

Combining classical refinement with contemporary reinvention, Yan Songliu stands as a vital representative of modern Dehua porcelain art — a bridge between history, emotion, and the evolving language of Chinese ceramics.

By Li Cuiyu — Taiwanese ceramics critic, independent curator, and lecturer at National Taichung University of Science and Technology, Chaoyang University of Technology, and Asia University.