Long COVID for the craft industry: findings from China's "Porcelain Capital" pre and post COVID

This paper systematically examines how COVID has shaped an essential craft industry in Jingdezhen, China's "Porcelain Capital", providing a typical case reflecting COVID's structural effects on the cultural and creative sectors. Drawing upon primary data collected through four field trips between September 2018 and March 2023, this paper reveals the enormous challenges craft practitioners and businesses face amid COVID, including financial losses, business closures, and diminished international trade. Despite easing restrictions since 2023, there is little sign that the industry will return to pre-pandemic status soon. Moreover, although COVID and the "digital pivot" triggered by it introduced new opportunities for some craft practitioners, they predominantly exposed and exacerbated existing inequalities in the craft industry, including among private businesses and individual practitioners.