Zhejiang celadon exhibition retraces maritime trade history in Rabat

The special exhibition "Zhejiang Celadon Tour" officially opened at the China Cultural Center in Rabat on Sept 10, drawing over 120 guests, including representatives from the diplomatic, cultural, and heritage sectors of China and Morocco.

In her speech, Chinese Ambassador to Morocco Yu Jinsong noted that porcelain is a remarkable creation of Chinese civilization, and that Morocco, too, has a long-standing ceramic tradition. While Zhejiang celadon and Moroccan ceramics differ stylistically, she said, both embody the two peoples’ shared pursuit of a better life. With this year marking the China-Africa Year of People-to-People Exchanges and the 10th anniversary of the China-Morocco strategic partnership, Yu expressed hope that the exhibition would deepen Sino-Moroccan and Sino-African cultural exchanges and cooperation, bring cultural heritage to life, and inject momentum into building a China-Africa community with a shared future.

Moroccan representatives praised the significance of the event in their speeches, describing ceramics as physical archives of human social development. Noting that both Morocco and China possess profound ceramic heritage traditions, they said the exhibition demonstrates the power of human creation, inheritance, and exchange, and expressed hope that both sides would use the event as a catalyst to leverage cultural heritage as a vital messenger between civilizations and across generations.

Featuring 40 ceramic pieces, the exhibition will run through Sept 30. It systematically traces the technological evolution and aesthetic system of Zhejiang celadon, drawing on kiln sites, ports, shipwrecks, and overseas archaeological finds to reconstruct the history of celadon’s maritime trade with Africa, while weaving together the shared historical memories of China and Morocco through the travelogues of Ibn Battuta. The opening ceremony also marked the launch of an online version of the exhibition, alongside interactive intangible cultural heritage workshops on celadon making and tea arts.

An accompanying academic salon on maritime porcelain followed on Sept 11, also held at the China Cultural Center in Rabat.

The exhibition is co-hosted by the Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture, Radio, Television, and Tourism and the China Cultural Center in Rabat, organized by the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and supported by the Jinhua Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television and Tourism and the Longquan Museum.