Chinese Blue and White Porcelain from Banten: Establishing a Classification Framework and Methodology

Rie Ong

While much of existing scholarship has been centred on the trade and circulation of blue and white porcelain from China to Europe and the Americas during the early modern period, far less attention has been directed toward how similar systems of exchanges shaped the daily lives of diverse communities in Southeast Asia. Drawing upon an assemblage of blue and white porcelain sherds recovered from the Pacinan (Chinese quarters) site in Banten, West Java, this paper examines how conceptualising a classification framework based on decorative motifs and vessel types for the study of blue and white porcelain can reveal about local consumption patterns, the impact of its trade on the polity and the cultural exchanges which occurred across different communities. The study also situates the assemblage within the broader urban and social context of Banten by considering how the success of blue and white porcelain trade in Banten was also facilitated by the port’s connectivity with regional riverine networks and coastal regions, as well as strategic partnerships between local rulers and communities such as the migrant Chinese. This paper argues that blue and white porcelain traded to Banten during the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries reflected both local and regional preferences that were distinct from those found in the broader network of export ceramics distributed to the rest of the world, thereby situating Southeast Asia not just a passive recipient within global exchange systems but as a region that actively shaped patterns of consumption within those networks.