Swatow ware or Zhangzhou ware is a loose grouping of mainly late Ming dynasty Chinese export porcelain wares initially intended for the Southeast Asian market. The traditional name in the West arose because Swatow, or present-day Shantou, was the South Chinese port in Guangdong province from which the wares were thought to have been shipped. The many kilns were probably located all over the coastal region, but mostly near Zhangzhou, Pinghe County, Fujian, where several were excavated in the mid-1990s, which has clarified matters considerably.

Many authorities now prefer to call the wares Zhangzhou ware, as it seems that Swatow did not become an important export port until the 19th century, and the wares were actually probably exported from Yuegang, now Haicheng in Longhai City, Zhangzhou. The precise dates for the beginning and ending of production remain uncertain, but the evidence from archaeology suggests production between about 1575–1650, though an earlier start has been proposed. The peak levels of production may have ended around 1620.

Compared to contemporary Jingdezhen porcelain, Swatow ware is generally coarse, crudely potted and often under-fired. Decoration in underglaze blue and white using cobalt is the most common, and was probably the only type of decoration at first, but there are many polychrome wares, using red, green, turquoise, black and yellow overglaze enamels. Underglaze blue decoration had been common in Chinese ceramics for over two centuries, but polychrome enamels had been relatively unusual before this period. The pieces are mostly "large open forms such as dishes, painted with sketchy designs over the glaze in red, green, turquoise and black enamels". On the other hand, the "drawing has a spontaneity not found in the central tradition" of finer wares.

While "Swatow ware" is typically reserved for pieces with the characteristic styles of decoration, "Zhangzhou ware" also covers other types of wares made in the same kilns, for export or not, including large stoneware storage jars, whitewares, and a few figurines of the blanc de Chine type.

The most common subjects are birds in flight or at rest in or by water, and flowers. Animals, especially deer, set in a landscape are also common, as main subjects or in medallions in the border. Human figures are usually shown as staffage in landscapes, especially manning boats, but sometimes as a main subject. Other motifs are sea-monsters and dragons, both oddly-shaped. Some dishes have Islamic inscriptions in Arabic, intended for South East Asian Muslims rather than those further west. Some dishes show European ships, and represent Western ship's compasses. The designs show awareness of contemporary Jingdezhen porcelain, but at a considerable distance. Smaller numbers of pieces, often undecorated, are in a range of other background colours, especially blues and browns, usually achieved by slips, but also by applying coloured glazes all over.

The pieces very often have grit from the kiln on the glaze at the foot, indicating rather careless making. They were fired in dragon kilns of various designs, and the numerous potteries were small concerns, far removed from the industrial scale of Jingdezhen. Pieces were mostly wheel-thrown, but moulds were also used to form pieces.

The iconography has peculiarities, including the motif of the "split pagoda" where the central scene "is dominated by what resembles a three storey pagoda split in two vertically by a funnel-like strip reserved in white, almost like a volcanic eruption", which has puzzled scholars; there are a number of suggestions as to its meaning. This is now interpreted by some, including the Percival David Foundation and Victoria and Albert Museum, as "the path to the islands of the Immortals" of Chinese mythology, leaping above the building. Another interpretation identify the composition of mountains, ocean, and sailing boats as loose adaptation of the Neijing Tu (內经图/內經圖), a Daoist diagram illustrating the "inner landscape" of the human body according to Neidan, Wu Xing, Yin and Yang, and Chinese mythological principles. This design is also one of many where the Chinese characters in "debased" seal script make no sense, reflecting illiterate decorators producing for a market that could not read Chinese.

A division of the blue and white wares into three "families" or broad groups has been proposed by Barbara Harrisson: "conservative", "persistent" and "versatile", in chronological order. This classification was further refined by Monique Crick in 2010 into three types of decoration: "Sketchy", "Composed", and "Full "rim-to-rim"". The "Sketchy decoration" group uses "a vigorous, brushed style, painted freehand and spontaneously" by a single artisan. The later groups often use drawing in dark concentrated blue to create the design, which is then overpainted with a lighter wash, in the same style that is often used with black and turquoise in the polychrome enamels. Some of these pieces have visible pin pricks indicating where a stencil was fixed, presumably allowing rapid painting of the wash. The outline would have needed to dry before the wash was applied, suggesting that a number of artisans were involved in different stages of production requiring different levels of skill.