Contemporary Reflections
on
Glass in China
Part 1
With much attention and awareness currently focused on Contemporary Chinese art and Chinese sculpture in glass, it is important to understand the historical context of Contemporary Chinese glass within China and in relation to the West and Middle East. Since history and culture meld into the both the development of contemporary sculpture as well as appreciators’ understanding of it, let us take a brief overview of the history of glass in China.
A Brief History of Glass in China
It is understood that glass making techniques reached China from the Middle East by about 6th Century BCE or a little later which is around one thousand years after it was discovered in Syria.
Glassblowing techniques reached China by 5th Century BCE. Yet there is little evidence of glassmaking in objects or literature before the 17th Century. Early history of glass in China remains conjectural and conflicting until the reign of Káng Xi (1661-1722). One account indicated that earliest glass (beads and cast inlays) in China was made during the Warring States period (481-221 BCE). Another account reports that glass making reached China towards end of Zhou period (C1122-249 BCE) – eye beads were discovered in tombs in the fourth and third centuries BCE.
Art of casting in glass was mastered in Han period (206BC – 220 AD) when ritual objects of bi and cicada and objects for personal adornment (earings) were molded in opaque glass to imitate jade. Glass also used as an inlay for bronze belt hooks and bronze mirrors.
The next major turning point was the introduction of glass blowing techniques, about 500 years after it developed in the Middle East. At first glass was imported from Persia and Syria by sea or land by the Silk Road. The earliest finds of native Chinese glassblowing in an archeological context is in AD 481.
During the 1000 years that followed, there was a mixture of native manufacturing of glass and imported Roman glass. Little more is known about glass making until the Qing period (1644-1912).
