Vintage Blue and White Rice Grain Porcelain plates

9Some of us had grown up eating from these type of blue and white porcelain plates but had no idea why it is design like these. There are some even saw these kind of plates being used in hawker centers or food courts where famous dishes like char kuey teow are being served on top of them.  

Let me tell you the story behind these plates, so you don't need to dig thru the whole library of webpages to find it. These plates are known as rice gran plates or ling long plates which is a common name called back in China which stands for exquisite.

These plates originated from Jingdezhen, which is known as the porcelain capital for China. The plates originated back to the early 19th century, but these white grain rice version came to southeast Asia in the mid 70s to the late 90s. There were really many versions of these plates being produced, the most common one is the one you see in the picture here. 

At the top edge of the plates, you can see some symbols which looks like bats and there is a meaning behind them. Bat are good luck symbols in Chinese prosperity and the pronunciation of bats means "Fu" which stands for prosperity. The T shape like character means "gong", in English means work that represents the working class people. The dragon design symbol means protection. The dragon on the export versions normally have 5 fingers and it is not available for the China market. The square shape design on the rim of the plate stands for longevity and prosperity. 

These plates were all being stamped with cobalt blue ink stamp and it is done purely by hand. The person who is doing all these would need many years of practice. 

The words "Made in China" are commonly found being stamp at the back of these porcelain wares and these English words meant it is for export market purpose. The older rice grain plate versions, you can see it is being stamped with all the Chinese character. The bowl version of the rice grain is more commonly found as Chinese people normally eat from bowls by tradition.

One fun fact, you can see the rice grains shaped if you bring the plate up and look at it against the light.