CHINA: More than 200 million pieces of precious antique Chinese porcelain grace a "Gaudi" style house in China

When the Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi died in 1926, he probably had never expected that 80 years later, a a man in China would build a house just as flamboyant as his. Zhang Lianzhi is neither an architect nor an artist, but he has been working on his gigantic art piece for at least four years and has never been to Barcelona and doesn't even know who Gaudi is. Gaudi adorned many of his buildings with coloured tiles arranged in mosaic patterns but Zhang Lianzhi is working with more than 200 million ceramics pieces of different colours, which add another important dimension to his French style building. This 49-year-old Tianjin native has devoted his life to remodelling the 2,400 square-meter building with porcelain pieces dating from the Tang (AD 618-907) to Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Zhang has been spending every penny he earned through the four restaurants he owns on this project. The building was built in the early 1900s in Tianjin, two hours southeast of Beijing. Zhang has spent 1 million yuan (125,000 U.S. dollars) on it to collect over 4,000 vases, 20 tons of crystal and 400 stone lions together to create his "China House". The porcelain chips are mostly fragments of old Jun bowls, plates and vases. Jun porcelain was a sign of wealth and power -- a tradition that started with the Song Dynasty of 960-1279. Certain pieces of the Jun porcelain put on the exterior of the building are worth 3,000 U.S. dollars each and Zhang says this is a good way to preserve antique Chinese porcelain. "The most important thing is to keep all of these old ceramics chips. I think the best way to keep them is to cement them on the wall. That way they can be passed down form generation to generation. This is something traditional and has a long history. As they are so fragile, it's really difficult to preserve," said Zhang, who has never had a blueprint for the building that he has designed himself. "When we first started working on the project, we were really scared - we are dealing with antiques everyday. I have never thought we could create something like this when we had no experience and no blueprint. Zhang Lianzhi always relies on inspiration. Sometimes he calls me at two or three in the morning and talks about his ideas until seven or eight in the morning. When we meet, he makes simple drawing on a piece of paper to illustrate his ideas," Dai Shengzhi, manager of the China House construction project said. As the construction of the building proceeding towards completion, curious passers-by bombard the workers with questions and stares. Wang Liyan, a Tianjin resident saw this building for the first time. "Most of the museums are conventional. This museum has an eye-catching looking to it. It arouses the curiosity of people and we all want to walk inside to see what's that all about," Wang Liyan said. Tao Sijin said she's never seen anything like it in her life. "The exterior of the architecture grabs people's eyes immediately. I have never seen anything like this. It also has a clear style to it," she said. Born to an extremely wealthy family, Zhang Lianzhi lived in a house full of antiques, until they were all taken away by the communist party government during the Cultural Revolution. The only thing that survived the ransack was hidden behind a portrait of Mao Zedong, the founding father of China. Zhang's mother had great obsession over the things that were taken away from the family and Zhang made a promise to himself that when he made his fortune the first thing he would do was to buy back the family treasure. Zhang made a fortune in the late 1980s from selling gold. The 1,200 U.S. dollars he made he exchanged for a handful of attractive antiques that resembled the lost family treasure. He was hugely encouraged when he saw the beautiful art pieces and the smile on his mother's face. His career of collecting gained pace from that point. The China House consumed his 20 years collection of porcelain. Zhang is keen to share what he calls his "Utopia" and the China House is a museum that will be opened to the public when it's completed. The other four restaurants he runs are also full of his 20-year-old collection. "A true collector collects the history of antiques. If a collector tries to hide things away after he collects them, then the antiques lose their identities. Collecting is not meaningful anymore if other people know nothing about the beauty of the antiques. When we share something beautiful with other people, we feel something beautiful in return," Zhang said. Buddha heads from 2000 years ago, sitting across the table looking down on diners, attracted many curious visitors. Zhang's restaurants are doing very well at the moment. Still, Zhang is having a heady time keep up with his speed of collecting antiques.

ITN Source | September 29, 2006

Tags:. .penny. .patterns. .anymore. .remodelling. .nor