青花瓷 (2007)

"Blue and White Porcelain" (Chinese: 青花瓷; pinyin: Qīng huā cí) is a song recorded by Taiwanese singer-songwriter Jay Chou. It was released on 2 November 2007, as part of the singer's eighth studio album, On the Run! (2007). "Blue and White Porcelain" was written by Vincent Fang, arranged by Baby Chung, and composed by Chou himself.

Fang and Chou drew inspiration for "Blue and White Porcelain" from friends who appreciated traditional Chinese art, motivating both songwriters to use porcelain—a national treasure in China—as the theme of the piece. The song's production contains elements of traditional Chinese opera and utilizes the main melody of the Chinese pentatonic scale "Palace mode" (宮調式). At the 19th Golden Melody Awards in Taipei, the song won three accolades including Song of the Year.

The accompanying music video for "Blue and White Porcelain" stars actor Baron Chen and actress Cherry Hsia; it features Chen as a knight who must exchange a rare treasure blue and white porcelain for his lover Hsia who is kidnapped. On 6 February 2008, Jay Chou sang "Blue and White Porcelain" at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, which was met with praise from viewers. For additional promotion, the song was performed on several concert tours by Chou, including The Era World Tour (2010–2011).

Background and history

Originally, Vincent Fang wanted to name the song "Bronze", because bronze is not romantic enough to change the Song dynasty's "Ru ware" for the song title. However, the Ru ware of the word "Ru" would give rise to unflattering associations, and coupled with the romantic elegance of porcelain, Vincent Fang finally decided to use porcelain as the title of the song. At first, the word "porcelain" (青花瓷) was misheard by Jay Chou as "frog pond" (青蛙池).

Music video and live performances

In the music video for "Blue and White Porcelain", Baron Chen portrays a knight who must exchange a rare blue and white porcelain treasure to rescue his kidnapped lover, played by Cherry Hsia. Despite the exchange, the villain kills the knight’s lover. The video then transitions through time and space to a modern antique auction house, where Hsia's character bids on the same blue and white porcelain. She encounters the knight once again, but their reunion ends in tragedy.

On 6 February 2008, Jay Chou sang "Blue and White Porcelain" at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala in Beijing. It was watched by more than 2 million people, with Chou's performance receiving the highest viewership ratings for the event. The performance was well-received by netizens.

Usage in education and controversies

In December 2007, a high school in Wuhan, China, used the lyrics of "Blue and White Porcelain" as a topic for a language exam where it asked students to recite the lyrics from memory. On 13 June 2008, the lyrics were used to examine the long history of Chinese porcelain on a college entrance exam question in Shandong, China.