Mei Baoyu 梅宝玉
Mei Baoyu is a Professor-level Senior Arts and Crafts Artist, a Professor-level Senior Rural Revitalization Artisan, and a National Vocational Skill Level 1 / Senior Technician. She is a member of the China Arts and Crafts Society, the Jiangsu Arts and Crafts Society, and the Jiangsu Ceramic Art Committee.
Born in Yixing, Jiangsu, in 1960, Mei Baoyu entered the Yixing Zisha Art Factory in 1980. She studied under Xu Chengquan, a Jiangsu Provincial Arts and Crafts Master. Because she was diligent, eager to learn, and outstanding in her craft, she was selected through a factory assessment in 1983 to join the factory’s Research Institute, where she devoted herself to technical innovation and creative work.
There, she was mainly guided by Xu Hantang, a Chinese Arts and Crafts Master, who taught her a variety of fully handmade techniques. She was also supervised and instructed by Gu Jingzhou, the factory’s chief craft designer and a towering master of Yixing Zisha.
In 1985, the Research Institute recommended her to the Central Academy of Arts and Crafts for further study, where she specialized in ceramic drawing and design. She attended lectures by experts and professors including Zhang Shouzhi and Wang Jianzhong. During this period, she gained extensive knowledge of ceramic art and culture, learned the fundamentals of drafting, and laid a solid foundation for her later artistic creation.
Also in 1985, she was formally accepted as a disciple by Wang Yinxian, a Chinese Arts and Crafts Master, and has continued under her guidance ever since.
In 1997, she was included in the Dictionary of Chinese and Foreign Celebrities. Thanks to the instruction of many renowned masters and her own determination to improve, her skills in Zisha teapot making were greatly enhanced. Her works have been shown in numerous art and fine art exhibitions at home and abroad and have won many awards.
Her Fushou teapot, created in 1981, was collected by the famous Chinese educator Zhou Peiyuan. Works such as the Tiaosha Pumpkin teapot, the Xiaoyao teapot, the Dragon-and-Phoenix Neck Vase, the Baoguang teapot, and various Gongchun teapots are deeply loved and collected by teapot enthusiasts. Her works have also been published many times in newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Among teapot lovers in Hong Kong and Taiwan, she is affectionately nicknamed the “Queen of Gongchun.” Her Gongchun teapots are natural and well-proportioned, with clear, delicate, smooth, and spontaneous textures. They avoid artificiality, feature rich contours, and possess a primitive elegance, noble dignity, and grand restraint. Building on the classic form, she has innovated and created more than a dozen Gongchun teapot shapes, forming a distinctive series of her own.
Mei Baoyu is also actively involved in social welfare. She has contributed to donations, charitable giving, sponsorship, and other philanthropic activities. In 2008, 2009, and 2012, she accompanied her teacher three times to participate in skills exhibitions for national intangible cultural heritage.
