Jade

Malaysian "jade" necklace

As I was going through my mom's jewelry box one of her necklaces really caught my eye. After asking her about it, I found out it was a lavender Malaysian jade necklace. Not only did the exotic name appeal to me but so did it's beauty.

Upon receiving the assignment of creating a blog about East Asian art and culture one of the first things that popped into my mind was this necklace. Mainly because I always associated Chinese culture with jade. My math professor from China wears a jade bracelet and the jade exhibit at The Field Museum of Natural History associates with almost exclusively Chinese culture and so many other places make the connection between the two. However I never knew the reason why; I just didn't question it.

Doing future research I unfortunately found out Malaysian jade isn't real jade, it's dyed quartzite. Despite this fact I still acquired a lot of knowledge of real jade and how it relates to Chinese culture from research.

https://boneart.co.nz/products/jade-pi-disc-by-nick-balme-j2738?variant=
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Jade is believed to have special attributes and can represent wisdom, peace, purity or beauty therefore jade means a lot when it comes to its social value. There is a Chinese saying regard jade, "gold has a value; jade is invaluable" (thoughtco.com) which even furthers how important jade is seen in this culture especially when we can compare how important gold is to Western civilization and its' status. Not only is traditional jade beautiful but it is durable which resulted in many vessels being made out of this mineral which relates to a lot of the art we have learned about in class.


The websites below helped me become more informed about the "jade" I thought I had and also about jade in Chinese culture:
Jade in Chinese Culture
Malaysia "Jade" Meaning and Properties