Xu Sihai (c. 1946 – June 5, 2020) was a Chinese

teapot A teapot is a vessel used for steeping tea leaves or a herbal mix in boiling or near-boiling water, and for serving the resulting infusion which is called tea. It is one of the core components of teaware. Dry tea is available either in tea ba ...

creator, artisan, collector, and curator. Xu was an expert and authority on purple clay teapots, also known as the

Yixing clay teapot Yixing clay teapots (), also called Zisha teapot (), are made from Yixing clay. This traditional style commonly used to brew tea originated in China, dating back to the 15th century, and are made from clay produced near Yixing in the eastern ...

. In 1992, Xu founded the Sihai Teapot Museum, the first

private museum A private museum is a collection, usually on a very limited topic and operated by individual enthusiasts, collectors, clubs or companies. Overview Unlike a public or governmental museum, a scientific monitoring and systematic documentation is n ...

established in modern

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

Biography

Xu was born in

Yancheng Yancheng () is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Jiangsu province of China, province, People's Republic of China. As the city with the largest jurisdictional area in Jiangsu, Yancheng borders Lianyungang to the north, Huai'an to the west, ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, Postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an Eastern China, eastern coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province of the China, People's Republic of China. It is o ...

province. He moved south to the city of

when he was 10-years old. He joined the

People's Liberation Army The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the principal military force of the People's Republic of China and the armed wing of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The PLA consists of five service branches: the Ground Force, Navy, Air Force, ...

when he was 23 years old and was sent to

North Vietnam North Vietnam, officially the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV; vi, Việt Nam Dân chủ Cộng hòa), was a socialist state supported by the Soviet Union (USSR) and the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Southeast Asia that existed f ...

during the 1960s. Xu first became interested in creating purple clay teapots while still enlisted in the military. After leaving the army, Xu returned to Shanghai with a truck full of purple clay teapots he created. Xu continued making purple clay teapots during the 1980s. His creation, a teapot called "Summer," won a national competition in 1985. That particular teapot was later acquired by the Asian Art Museum in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

. His first solo

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition ...

of his teapots took place in

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

in 1989. Examples of his teapots are now displayed in both Chinese and international museums. In 1992, Xu Sihai opened the Sihai Teapot Museum, the first private museum in Shanghai. He also opened "A Hundred Buddhas Garden" in 2009, a 3.07-hectare complex which encompasses the original Sihai Teapot Museum, as well as the China Tea God Museum and a tea processing factory located in the city's

Jiading District Jiading is a suburban district of Shanghai. It had a population of 1,471,100 in 2010. History Historically, Jiading was a separate municipality/town, until, in 1958, becoming under the administration of Shanghai. In 1993, Jiading's designate ...

s Zhenxin neighborhood. Xu Sihai died on June 5, 2020, at the age of 74.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Sihai Museum founders Teapots Chinese ceramists Chinese collectors Chinese curators 20th-century ceramists 21st-century ceramists People from Shanghai People from Yancheng 1940s births 2020 deaths