Since the Han Dynasty, Chinese ceramics were exported to the West through the Silk Route. During the Song and Yuan Dynasty, maritime trade was prosperous that made Chinese ceramics started to export in large quantities. The export also became more systemic. Ceramics were registered in official lists of imports and exports. China imperial court established the maritime customs offices at Canton, Ming-chou, Chhuan-chou and ports in Canton, Quanzhou, Hangzhou and so on to facilitate commercial activity. According to the record, there were 15 countries and regions traded with China in the Song Dynasty. By the Yuan dynasty, Chhuan-chou became the chief coastal port in China where attracted many foreign traders chose to stay and live in the city. The thriving markets of ceramics export also facilitated private shipbuilding. Official capital and other assistance was provided for shipbuilding under a profit-sharing scheme whereby 70% went to government and 30% to private merchants. The maritime trade brought vast revenue to the China imperial court. According to the record, a huge ocean-going 600 tons vessels had been anchored at port of Chhuan-chou, Fu-chou, Chang-chou and Canton. Ceramics were one of the valuable trade items, alongside silk, good, lacquer and others. The sales have increased in Yuen Dynasty and there were more than 50 countries and regions engaged trade with China.

Pottery was brought to Southeast Asian countries due to the maritime trade development. In the meantime, the ceramic technology of Chinese wares has also been learned and imitated by other countries’ potters with their local resources. In order to satisfy local demand and to control import costs, many places set up their indigenous ceramic industries to produce ceramic products. Foreign potters had been acquired the knowledge and skill of Chinese high-fired, glazed ceramics through the large quantity of import.

Korea was the earliest to succeed in producing white porcelain in the 9th century. Due to the influence of China’s Yue ware (越州窯), people started to develop earthenware technology and produce celadon and white porcelain. The technology advanced in the 11th century and reached its peak in the 12th century. Goryeo celadon demonstrated its distinctiveness which created the "Biseak (kingfisher color)" and inlay technique. The realization of jade-coloured celadon and the development of the inlay technique are a big success of ceramic development in Korea.

In Japan, stoneware traditions were advanced in the 8th century, but the production of porcelain came late, which was succeed around 1620. At first, due to the influence of low-fired lead glazed ware of China and the Korean Peninsula, colorful green glazed ware and Nara sancai developed in the Asuka and Nara periods (538－794). Numerous imitations of Chinese ceramics were produced during the Kamakura and Muromachi periods (1185－1568) because people appreciated the value of "karamono" (Chinese products). During the 1610s, a large number of porcelain was made in Arita region. Chinese Ching-te-chen blue- and -white porcelain was used as the object of imitation in Arita initially, and then the manufacturing process also absorbed Chinese overglaze enameling technique. Arita met orders from the Chinese and Southeast Asian merchants at the port of Hirado. Nowadays, Arita remains the most famous area for porcelain production, and most of the Japanese porcelain comes from this place.

Vietnam and Thailand had remarkable development of ceramic technology in the 15th century that challenging Chinese imports in Asian markets. As for Vietnam, a large amount of ceramics was produced to respond to the trade demand. A type of unique Vietnamese wall tiles of Majapahit and a type of coarse Vietnamese ware were exported to the Malay World because of the under-supplies of Chinese ceramics in the 15th and 17th century respectively. The number of ceramics in Southeast Asia increased from the 14th century, including Vietnamese blue and white porcelain and Thai green-glazed stoneware. Chinese ceramics influenced many Thai products, but Thai ceramics have also embraced its distinctiveness by involving the indigenous style, such as unique shapes, colours and decorative patterns. From the 14th century to the early 16th century, Sawankhalok kilns produced a large amount of ceramics. Celadon pottery was Thailand's major export commodities until the end of the 15th century, and these ceramics have been found in the excavated shipwrecks.

Myanmar and Cambodia have developed their own ceramic tradition under the influence of Indian and Chinese design. The green-glazed stoneware and opaque white-glazed earthenware from the Twante and Bago regions in Burma also became one of the common forms of Southeast Asian ceramics from the 1470s. Large plates and bowls were the popular commodities in the trade at that time.

In the 7th century, East Africa, a semi-peripheral region of the Muslim world, began to integrate into the network of world-systems. Chinese ceramics have been transmitted from different regional networks to production bases in Southeast Asia, and then to East Africa. In the early 9th century, Chinese ceramics has become one of the leading products of regular trade between China and East Africa.

A large quantity of celadon porcelain exported to the Muslim world and East Africa from the 9th to 12th centuries. Some researchers discovered that the number of bowl fragments exceeded other imported commodities in the middle of the 11th century. This situation tended to relate Asian rice consumption and new culinary practices on Pemba Island in the 11th century. The large quantity of Chinese imported bowls serves as evidence of the domestication of rice culture in coastal areas of the central part of the Swahili world. From the 12th century, there was the growing presence of Chinese ceramics in East Africa, in particular, green-glazed stoneware from Longquan. The blue-and-white porcelain from Ching-te-chen also highly valued in the 14th century.

Chinese ceramics embraced high qualities such as cleanliness, lightweight and aesthetics were highly respected when they were imported to the Western Indian Ocean. Some archaeologists have also found Chinese ceramics in the mosque in several locations from the end of the 13th century. It demonstrated the use of Chinese ceramics in both religious and domestic settings. Furthermore, there was a trend that people reused and redesigned the ceramics to other objects to adorn the body and clothing: pendants, earrings, or buttons.

Needham concluded that the Southern and West Asia and Africa could be distinguished between those who saw no pressing need to further develop their localized pottery industries and those who sought to imitate Chinese imported ceramics and to develop their own ceramic traditions.

The Portuguese and Spanish were the first explorers to reach the southeast coast of China and promoted the connection between China and the West. The maritime transport routes of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific Ocean and the opening of European markets advocated China’s maritime trade to its peak. From the 14th century, rare commodities started to enter the European market. Initially, the Portuguese ships carried the Chinese porcelain back to Europe, following a growing appreciation for imported Chinese porcelains in the later 15th century. Chinese export products have aroused the curiosity of Westerners about Chinese ceramics. European merchants established the trading route to China from the 16th century, and the trade had flourished between Italy, North Africa and West Asia.

An astonishing number of Chinese porcelain were imported into Europe during the 17th century facilitating an exchange of technology, shapes and designs of ceramics. Chinese import ceramics have aroused European curiosity and fanaticism, in particular of the blue and white porcelain, was generally obsessed by European. The exquisite ceramics were all prompting as artwork and luxury items pursued by the nobles and upper-class societies. They were all proud of collecting Chinese porcelain to demonstrate their noble identity while the ceramics were rarely utilized as the daily necessity. As time goes by, European consumers have also established aesthetic standards and taste of ceramic rather than blindly adoring. Some European officials in Southeast Asia have tried to send European-style decorative patterns to Chinese production centers through the merchants or direct contacts, creating some wares with personal or noble family characteristics and symbols. This situation also promoted the exchange of Chinese porcelain between China and Europe. In addition to ware decorated with oriental motifs, European royal courts and some noble families often have their own unique ceramics.

The Portuguese and the Dutch brought a large amount of porcelain to the West during the 17th century. According to the record, the Dutch shipped about 24000 items of blue and white in 1615 and around 42000 of them in 1616, and it has been estimated that over three million pieces of porcelain had been transported to Europe. Trade was at its peak in the 17th century because many European countries were actively pursued to trade with China, in particular of the United Kingdom. In the 1730s, the English Company had achieved trade with China and was bringing back hundreds of thousands of pieces of Chinese porcelain to sell on the London market.

In some European countries, the development of ceramic-making technology is also obviously affected by Chinese porcelain. European porcelain-making maybe traced to the 16th century. For example, there were some European workshops set up in Florence from about 1575 to 1578 where attempted to copy Chinese porcelain. European potters were eager to produce high-fired stoneware and high-quality ceramics by themselves but only managed to manufacture earthenware covered with an opaque glaze and early ‘soft-paste’ porcelains which were were soft and brittle in use.

European ceramic factories made a success in copying Chinese products in the late 18th century, which led to a reduction trade with China. The collapse of the Ming dynasty had also suspended the European trade. There is a record noted that white porcelain was successfully made in 1708. However, there was a part of the difference in manufacture way between Italy, French, Spanish, German, English and China, which based on the nature of raw materials available and the late development of high-temperature kilns, as existing European ceramics industries were mainly producing majolica, faience and other types of earthwares. People started to purchased tableware from European factories. The success of the England national pottery industry influenced the British attitudes to China’s trade, which made the bulk-imported Chinese ceramics difficult to sell. The British East India Company also terminated the porcelain trade on its own.

• China's Decline in the late 19th and 20th Centuries

The Industrial Revolution in Europe advocated the manufacturing output, including the factory production of ceramics. British factories gradually found out the novel solutions to the problem concocting hard bodies and durable surfaces. Some recipes were even quite close matches to Chinese porcelain from Ching-te-chen. In contrast, the innovation and production were declining in China because of the political and economic wane. The traditional policy was set up in restricting and controlling with other lands and trade in the Ming Dynasty to preserve the stability of the empire. The lack of progress in modern science and technology also affected the supply of fresh forms and novel products. On the other hand, opium replaced bullion as a significant British trading commodity. Chinese people's opium addiction led to a great demand for opium, which increased the import of opium.

Chinese ceramics demonstrate oriental aesthetic for the worldwide because it has a remarkable ceramic tradition from the aspect of the excellent raw materials, outstanding technical skills and the richness and complexity of culture. The export wares influenced the manufacture of fine ceramics in countries from the 8th century to 18th century. Chinese ceramics highly valued as the gorgeous items in many countries and contributed to the creation of more new types of ceramics in different places. Many countries learned to use their own refractory clays for the production of unglazed and ash-glazed stonewares. Egypt and Iran successfully made Low-firing white "stone-paste" ceramics during the 11th-12th century and they were often used to imitate Chinese porcelains with local resources.

Ching-te-chen is one of the significant roles to expand the ceramic invention, the blue and white porcelain represents the most influential artworks in the world ceramic technology and highly prized for its superior quality in term of the technical innovation, artistic and aesthetic standard. Chinese ceramic induces the Western interest in its product and expands the examine and analysis of the nature and properties of porcelain through scientific study. A new method of transferring technology has been formed .