The teacher and the student
China Daily Asia | Updated: 2019-01-30 13:49
What is the younger generation's reaction to jade today in Hong Kong and China?
Very complicated. In China, the younger generations find jade a very precious but mysterious material. In Chinese culture, it symbolises life and death. A lot of people place a jade cicada in the mouth when someone passes away. The word "jade" is very interesting in Chinese, too. It symbolises the sky, the earth and the people in-between. When you connect them with one another, it becomes jade, so that's the wisdom of it. It's called the "gentlemen's stone" in Chinese. Over the past couple of decades, a lot more people have owned jade, so the price has risen – and some younger people like jade for that reason.