What type of Chinese porcelain figurines or statues do we find mostly in Chinese culture?
Actually, the porcelain figurines remaining today indicate that porcelain found only limited use for figurines in ancient China. Purely decorative items are relatively rare. Most figurines can be categorized as follows:
Religious
Buddha and Boddhisattva figurines for the house altar, etc.Best known are the white Dehua Guanyin figurines or the so-called laughing Buddha. Due to their size such figurines would usually be used for the house altar.
Daoist deities for the house altar, made in porcelain.
Figurines of the eight immortals or Lohans (Arhats in Sanskrit).
Guardian animals, auspicious animals, etc.
Most of these are made of pottery, not porcelain and are of larger size, located outdoors, etc.
People
Figurines showing people and everyday life.
Birds
A variety of birds including parrots
Produce and other real-life items
Following the example of others, in the Qianlong reign Jingdezhen started making replica of real-life items like certain fruits, crabs, etc.
Later Figurines Only in the first decades of the 20th century did the production of porcelain figurines increase considerably. Many of those made in Jingdezhen we see today, are from that period. There were shops specialized in human figurines (incl. deities, Buddhas) only, while others are known to have mainly produced birds and animals.
The well known Shiwan figurines, on the other hand, seem to have a longer history. They are mostly made of pottery, not porcelain, however. With human figurines the clothes of people and other items are glazed, while the face, hands and feet remain unglazed.
