Masterpiece in sight: Decoding the art of Guangcai with Xiaomi 13T Series’ Leica colours

While many are familiar with the blue and white qinghua porcelain from the Yuan Dynasty, there’s often a piece of Canton porcelain gold called Guangcai that’s overlooked. With over 300 years of history, Guangcai is a treasured art form native to Guanzhou culture, and where qinghua utilises a single blue pigment, Guangcai incorporates a wide spectrum of colours with its main hues of red, green, yellow, and gold. With Guangcai, scenes are brought to life with key images of goldfish, dragons, peonies, cabbage, chicken, and birds. These all come together for an auspicious piece of porcelain that tells a story.

Through the years, technological advancements in production have replaced the arduous technique found in the handmade craft of Guangcai, striking a blow to the number of artists practicing in the art form. Porcelain is now mass-produced at a much quicker rate with the aid of technology, leaving behind the labour and time-intensive tradition of Guangcai.

In many ways, the art of film photography shares a similar issue. The hours spent in a darkroom were suddenly replaced with LCD displays, digital sensors, and memory cards. Fine china used to be used for decades and handed down as heirlooms, but in modern times, porcelain dishes can be found at most department stores for little money, and are often easily replaced. The same can be said about the transition to digital photography — gone are the days of the archives of family photo albums passed down to generations, and in their place are photos that are deleted just as easily as they were taken. But is not all bad. In fact, it has benefited the art of photography greatly through accessibility, proliferating a whole new generation of photographers with incredible works.

When it comes to preserving heritage while moving forward, there’s one imaging company that is revered and held on a different level than the rest, and that is Leica. Each product holds codes of the past and is crafted at the highest level. Its cameras embody characteristics found in film cameras of the past in terms of build, material, and appearance, but are packed with innovation that reproduces some of the most remarkable colours. Each camera implores its users to stop and think before they shoot, and to revisit the “art” aspect of photography.

While Leica has done a fantastic job at incorporating technology into its company while striking a high level of differentiation of its products in the market, I wondered if something like Guangcai shared any similarities in evolution.

Looking to capture the essence of Guangcai, and to learn more about its heritage, I armed myself with a Xiaomi 13T Pro fitted with the Leica-developed camera system and visited 4th generation Guangcai masters Yuet Tung Chinaworks. For daily use, smartphones have erased the need to carry around a full-body camera. So, on top of my Guangcai research, I wanted to find out two things: Can the co-engineered Leica mobile camera translate the rich hues found in Guangcai, and, if you still get that same sense of artistry found in other Leica products on the mobile platform.

Testing the Xiaomi 13T Pro at Yuet Tung Chinaworks

Yuet Tung Chinaworks is the last porcelain factory in Hong Kong that still produces Guangcai. The factory has over 100 years of history and its techniques have been passed down for four generations. Owned by the Tso family, the factory has thousands of completed works and is a hot spot for porcelain lovers from across the globe. In recent times, the company has found a new successor in the owner’s daughter, Martina Tso. As Guangcai involves complex colours and high details, this would be a fun place to test out the Leica-equipped Xiaomi 13T Pro.

A whimsical notion came over me after browsing the number of hand-painted porcelain — some of these colours matched up with the updated Alpine Blue and Meadow Green coloured backs of the new 13T Pro. Interestingly enough, I also learned that Yuet Tung Chinaworks had its very own take on Guangcai that was a result of all the different clients he’s had over the decades. After all, Hong Kong is a port city and his requests have come from all over the world. Joseph Tso calls the style of Guangcai that’s evolved from being in Hong Kong for nearly 100 years, “Kongcai.”

This new style moves away from classic motifs and explores colours that would typically be found in Guangcai, not to mention the illustrations take on more Western themes. This was perfect and in my quest to draw parallels, I could shoot classic Guangcai in the Xiaomi 13T Pro’s Leica Authentic mode that’s geared towards classic tones, while I could take aim at the “Kongcai” pieces with the newly developed Leica Vibrant mode.

A real workhorse, the Xiaomi 13T Pro is a phone that is suited for a wide range of lifestyles and is the one phone to take when on an adventure. It is able to tackle to most demanding apps with its MediaTek Dimensity 9200+ chipset and Octa-core CPU (3.35GHz), and has plenty of battery life (even when gaming) thanks to its large 5000mAh (typ) battery. Even when under extreme loads, the phone remains cool thanks to a stainless steel 5000mm(2) VC soaking plate. The Xiaomi 13T Pro also supports Xiaomi 120W HyperCharge, which enables a 100% charge in just 19 minutes, or 36% in just 5 minutes.

On the display side of things, the phone sees a 6.67” CrystalRes Display supporting up to 144Hz refresh rate3 and 1.5K (2712 x 1220) resolution. For gamers, there’s a high brightness mode of up to 1200nits and a peak brightness of up to 2600nits. This ensures that you’re seeing exactly what you are trying to capture and the entertainment side of things is equally enjoyable. For those that have more of a rugged lifestyle, the phone has you covered with an IP68 rating for water and dust resistance.

Bringing out the artist in its users, the Xiaomi 13T Pro sees its signature Leica-developed camera system which offers two original Leica photographic styles. For those looking to fine-tune their photographic work, The Pro mode unlocks adjustment in the Tone, Tonality, and Texture at the pre-set stage. Covering 100% DCI-P3 (68 billion colours), the 13T Pro is equipped with three cameras: A 24mm Leica main camera (50MP wide angle), a 50mm Leica telephoto camera, and a 15mm Leica ultra-wide camera. For those looking to add a little more of an edge to their images, the Xiaomi 13T Pro comes with six Leica filters, including a newly added Leica Sepia and Leica Blue derived from the LeicaM-Typ240 Film Mode. This phone is also exceptional in the video department with 8K video support and 10-bit LOG 4:2:0 H.265 video recording. Whether documenting family life or vlogging your travels, the 13T Pro has all the tools to create professional-level masterpieces.

Results

For those interested in my further exploration into Guangcai and Hong Kong’s Yuet Tung Chinaworks, my conversation with both Joseph Tso and his daughter can be found below:

What is your personal connection and story to Guangcai?
Joseph Tso: Our factory this year has existed for over 95 years. My grandfather started the business in 1928 which was originally in Canton. I eventually came to work in the factory where we relocated to Hong Kong in the year 1956. My father was the second-generation manager of the family factory. Eventually, our whole family was involved. We stayed in the factory most of the time, living together with the painters, the workers… everyone. We felt that this was our own family so the factory became a big part of my life. I spent much of my adolescent years in the factory before enrolling in Baptist College in 1968. Business was good in Hong Kong due to all the overseas buyers and tourists.

Martina Tso: Lots of American department stores would import our stuff at the time, but they needed help translating some of the orders. That is where I eventually started to get involved with the business and the craft. It all started with helping my father with orders.

How did you begin and at what point did you know you were going to dedicate your life to the craft?
J: It is a family business at the end of the day, and in those days, you know you eventually have to get involved in your family’s livelihood one way or another.

M: I worked in TV production before and I come from a design background from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, so I know how to draw. I was never really interested in the porcelain industry but after giving birth to my daughter, I quit my job in production and went full time in helping out the family business. The move allowed me to take care of my daughter and add to the business.

Similar to how Leica began with film and adopted digital as photography evolved, has Guangcai ever faced a similar situation in production? Do you think traditional and modern should even co-exist, or should one eventually fully replace the other
J: I do think that there is a time and place for both and circumstance. Even for Guangcai everything was painted by hand but there are some new designs so complex and modern that we have incorporated stencilling and stamping. When you look at the finished product, it is still familiar with our work in Guangcai but it was done using techniques afforded by technology.

M: We’re never going to be an automated factory with no human element, but there are areas where technology can help. Imagine things never changed with the times and Guangcai patterns were still kept with their masters. We would never get to appreciate their work once they’ve passed on. Luckily, there was the creation of stencils. We have hundreds of design outlines in boxes, but it is even better to keep digital copies of works. If anything happens to the physical outlines, we have a digital version that can be shared, printed, transported, and modified with ease on a smart tablet. This is important as well for the future because if the next generation grew up with computers, and their illustrations are done on a computer, they should still be able to learn Guangcai regardless if the design is done with pencil and paper.

What is the most difficult aspect of Guangcai to master?
J: First of all, you must have a steady hand. You see all these colours on the designs, that’s a lot of line work and so you have to be delicate. The outline must be dawn clear to act as a border to the colours.

M: Just the basics alone must be passed down from a master painter to the student. This must train for at least three years. For some of the less complex designs usually one or two years of training is enough. Then there’s the selection of design. There are some people are are only good or specialise in porcelain motifs like the cabbage design. The fighting rooster is complex and so some people spend their whole life mastering it and maybe one or two more patterns.

J: There are roughly over 150 designs, but you’ll notice that a lot of traditional guangcai uses recurring designs. In more recent times, we’ve had to sort of break the mould and do custom or new designs.

M: We’ll incorporate logos and non-traditional motifs and colours on traditional porcelain items. Some people want the quality and craftsmanship but want to change it up so it is not so antique, and so we have to meet those requests.

The 6 Original Leica Filters

When choosing the colours in your work, how important is the accuracy of the colours selected and how do you choose them?
J: The colour is very important as we have very specific tones line “Big-Green” and we often use gold outlines. Everything has to be defined and stand out. We use real gold paint, and that has a particular look to it. Imagery for traditional Guangcai can range from large to extremely detailed. And since many of the motifs have meaning and represent things like luck, fortune, food, and even childbearing, the colours and design have to be accurate.

Through the years, the number of Guangcai craftsman have dropped. What is the main cause of this?
J: It’s just not the most attractive trade as a young kid. Think about it. You have to sit still for hours and steadily paint. Then if you were to get older, the salary is not as high as the other jobs out there in Hong Kong, and so those high-paying jobs attract all the potential artists. A lot of our painters are already at the age of retirement for most other industries. Once they are gone, it will be really hard to keep this up in Hong Kong but there is a silver lining. A lot of our painters went back to Canton in the ’70s as the government was calling back skilled labourers, that meant this style would live outside of Hong Kong but at the same time that meant that Guangcai from Hong Kong, which I call Kongcai is at a disadvantage. We are pretty lucky to be able to continue after all these years.

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In the end, it was interesting to learn about an art form with such a long history and the enduring spirit of Yuet Tung China Works. Capturing the colourful works of their artists through the Xiaomi 13T’s Leica camera was a memorable experience, and I always love these interactions that make you stop and think. There’s a lot of technology involved in the 13T Pro, but with its different modes, lens options, and manual settings, the heart of photography is still here.

That conception was echoed after speaking with Joseph and Martina. There’s always going to be that idea that things in the past were better, but in the end, even if the process has been made easier, there’s still the human element behind each creation. If the work is beautiful and tells a story, there will always be someone who appreciates it. Legacy for both Guangcai and Leica was not built based on one product it did well in the past, but rather a commitment to doing everything well over time. And that is why decades later, names like Yuet Tung China Works and Leica still exist.

For those looking to learn more about the phone used in this shoot, head over to Xiaomi’s dedicated page to learn more. The Xiaomi 13T Pro with 12GB+512GB is priced at HK$4,599 while the Xiaomi 13T with 12GB+256GB is priced at HK$3,299.

Yuet Tung China Works
3/F, Kowloon Bay Industrial Centre
Unit 1-3, 15 Wang Hoi Rd, Kowloon Bay
Hong Kong