Black pottery, from the late Neolithic Age, has a history of more than 4,000 years. It's another landmark achievement in ceramics after painted pottery. It is famous in the pottery altar for its black color, thinness, smooth surface and hard texture.

Qihe black pottery retains aspects of the original black pottery and also has its own unique artistic styles and characteristics.

Liu Xuanzi makes Qihe black pottery. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Qihe black pottery uses unique, pure and fine laterite found on the Yellow River bed. After manual washing, embryo drawing and dozens of other processes, it is fired by sealing the kiln. It is black as paint, thin as paper, bright as a mirror, hard as porcelain and makes a chiming sound.

As a spreader of black pottery culture, Liu Xuanzi has since the early 1990s followed his father on national black pottery tours. They have traveled the country to promote black pottery art, which has led to the development of the black pottery industry.

Black pottery works. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Liu has carried out a lot of basic excavation work and studied black pottery art. As a planner and organizer of China Black Pottery Industry Association events and the China Black Pottery Art Festival, he is mainly engaged in the preservation of black pottery culture and production techniques, innovation and training.

In order to better promote black pottery culture, he has in recent years expanded various methods and achieved success through exhibitions, lectures, photography competitions, and livestreams.