After arriving in the U.S. in 1989, Bo Jia was dismayed by the poor quality of goods made in China for sale here. Jia sought to change the markey by making and selling better products. Jia and his wife, Alison Alten (born 1967), established the Middle Kingdom kiln with the ambition to create, in their words, "a new brand from China that would represent the best of traditional techniques with our modern interpretation, and in a material that could not be misinterpreted as an appropiation from any other culture--porcelain."