单选题
When the Portuguese began trading with China in the early 1500s,
26 was one of the luxury goods they carried home in their ships. Only the Chinese knew how to make this delicate, often
27 , material that tings when you
28 it. Demand for porcelain made expressly for foreigners spread as far as the Netherlands, Germany, Persia, the Ottoman empire, Japan and the young United States.
The Chinese
29 drew on traditional shapes, but quickly began to branch out, making Western
tureens (汤盆)in the form of pigs, cocks, blue-eyed ox heads and crouching crabs, as well as
30 shaped as colourful fish. It was a world apart from the traditional Chinese porcelain.
Now Chinese
31 are beginning to acquire them as homage to the
32 and commercial wisdom of their forebears. For the moment, though, the best collection is still in Brazil. It is the focus of a new three-volume study of 600
33 pieces.
Mafia