Gift ceramics market cracks amid anti-corruption campaign(2)

Earlier this year, the Discipline arm of the Communist Party of China issued a circular urging officials to refrain from luxurious banquets and gift-giving ahead of big festivals or events.

To deal with the situation, Wang's company is seeking to diversify its target market by catering to the demands of ordinary Chinese and the high-end collection market.

"The regulation has forced us to shift our focus from gift porcelain to elsewhere with potential customers," he explained, adding that the emphasis on TV shopping, outlets and e-commerce have helped offset the sales drops in its traditional markets.

Due to its timely action, the company posted a rise of 13 percent in its total sales volume from January to September from the same period of last year, and a rise of 18 percent in the sales value, according to Wang.

Another company seeking to tide over the frugality campaign is Taiwan-based Franz Porcelain, which erected a ceramic sculpture featuring two lions playing with a ball in the center of the exhibition hall.

Valued at 90,000 yuan, the product on show betrays the company's ambition to cater to the lucrative artwork collection market.

Zhang Yuansheng, manager of the company, told Xinhua that it used to sell over 80 percent of its products as gifts, of which half went to government and firms.

"The gift market has soured due to the government's luxury ban, which, retrospectively, has pushed us to reform and make more masterpieces for collectors," said Zhang.

Wu Yongming, vice chairman of the Jiangxi Provincial Association of Social Sciences, a local government think tank, hailed the frugality campaign as a good measure with double benefits.

"It's good to see more ordinary Chinese being able to consume items that were previously expensive tributes and more governmental expenditure under public scrutiny," said Wu.

(Wu Zhonghao and Cheng Di contributed to the reporting)