During the last ten years, diamond jewellery sales in China went up from $230 million to $1.8-2.0 billion producing a nearly eight-fold growth.
Table 1. Jewellery retail sales in China in 2005, in USD millions
Jewellery items Sales
Gold jewellery without stones 5400
Jewellery with stones 5300
Platinum jewellery 2900
Diamond jewellery 1800
Pearl jewellery 800
Silver jewellery 400
Other jewellery items 700
However, the gems market is significantly greater than just sales of diamond jewellery articles. The truth is that diamonds are considered “trivial” by the Chinese. This attitude may be explained by the people’s mentality.
China remains to be “the country of jade”; this stone accounts for 92% of the colored gems market. The others are rubies, sapphires, emeralds, etc.
The stable elements of the Chinese mentality (collectivism, society harmony, modesty) determine their attitude towards luxury. It is believed that showy and obnoxiously boastful luxury invites envy, thus leading to disharmony in society. This is why one can observe two tell-tale phenomena there: 1) a uniform use of personal luxury items inside social groups (rulers, clerks, the military, workers and peasants); 2) a shift of the luxury center of gravity onto public or community objects (for instance, devotional articles) or public symbols (for instance, insignia on the clerks’ garments and appurtenances).
The history of jewellery business in China is radically different form the European centrist tradition. The jewellery items as they are understood by the Europeans (as a way to express one’s personhood) are of secondary importance in China. The Heavenly Empire has nursed the consumers’ attitude to gold and silver jewellery in the course of many centuries. Evidently, this was due to that rich deposits of these metals in China were discovered long before Christ. The palaces of emperors and the houses of grand people were literally sparkling of gold.
Precious stones played the role of insignia for functionaries. Thus, their ranks could be distinguished by their cummerbunds stud with various gems. The 1st class of functionaries wore four pieces of agate encrusted with rubies; the 2nd class wore four gold plates lined with rubies; the 3d class wore four “naked” gold plates; the 4th and 5th classes wore silver-laid gold plates; the 6th class wore four silver-laid shells; the 7th class wore four round silver plates; the 8th class wore silver-laid mutton horn plates; and the 9th class wore black horn plates with silver applications.
The headdress was considered one of the most important attributes in the functionaries’ garments. A 1st class functionary had a small ruby ball in his headdress, while the 2nd class wore a coral ball and so forth.
Gold items were also saved in families as their common stock. As a rule, people took pains to give some gold trifles to brides at their weddings as gifts, for instance, “bells of happiness”, gold masks, fingernail covers and small decorative gold trees. The wedding palanquin was often gilded and decorated with the gold hieroglyph of “Xi” (Double Happiness).
Pearls were used by both women and men. For a bride it was typical to ware a pearl veil covering her face. Well-to-do Chinese women used to ware the “Phoenix Cap” or the “Pearl Cap” – a cap adorned with pearls and jewels. Pearl beads and headdresses fit out with pearls were popular among men.
Besides that, long fingernails were treasured as a sign of wealth and a high standing in society. These were a clear notion that their owner had nothing to do with the ignominious physical labour. Since fingernails were apt to break even without any physical labour, they were protected with fingernail covers.
ROLE OF DIAMONDS
The above examples show that diamonds are not encountered in the Chinese cultural tradition. For many centuries there, the diamond had a nickname of “drilling stone” due to its unique hardness. Scientists found out that the ancient Chinese used diamonds to polish jades as early as the Stone Age.
Generally speaking, the use of polished diamonds as jewellery components became known to the Chinese only… in the early 20th century under the evident influence of European colonists in China. The first consumers of diamond adornments were the wives and daughters of British functionaries and military officers followed by Anglicized aborigines, mainly from Hong Kong. In this mainstay of West-European way of life in the 1920s-1930s there were just a few jewellery stores offering diamond decorations. The majority of diamond vendors were French jewellers, who initially hired their compatriots as sellers. Later on, they started to employ Chinese sellers. Being taught, the local Chinese either opened their own jewellery outlets or moved to Shanghai, which was the most cosmopolite city in China accommodating the largest number of foreign inhabitants; so jewellery trade was briskly flourishing there up to the Second World War.
The jewellery business in Hong Kong lived through dramatic events. In 1942, the city fell under the onslaught of the Japanese army. The “black market” time came in. However, it was during that time that people appreciated rough and polished diamonds as a unique currency, which could be converted into any assets at any time. There was a popular phrase on the run: “Passport to salvation”!
After the war, the diamond business was revived. The old-time firms, like that of the Gregory family, for instance, renewed their operations. There appeared Chinese companies, such as Foo Hang Jewellery and Tai Hang, which in 1948 started to import diamonds from Israel (at that time, this country was called Palestine). Some trading firms started to specialize on selling diamond items, as for example Diamonds Chow Tai Fook and Chow Sang. There emerged Indians speculating with goods brought from Antwerp.
In 1946, Mao Tse-tung came to power in China. Descended from a peasant family, he neither perceived nor accepted luxury. There was even a case when Soviet military advisors ventured an idea to award Chinese marshals with diamond Orders of Victory (similar to the Soviet Order of Victory), to which they received a resolute “No!” from Mao. They say that Mao rejected gems not only because his marshals would resemble wealthy crones; he also said that Soviet marshals, too, were “heavy with fat and awards and woozy of vodka and power.”
In 1948 and 1949, being pressed by the communist authorities, the Chinese moneybags resorted to the “diamond pump” tactics: in the mainland China, they turned all their property into diamonds, smuggled them abroad and then converted into hard currency. Hong Kong turned to be the center point of such transactions. Due to the influx of diamonds and other precious stones, the prices there dropped to a catastrophic notch. This resembled the collapse of the European jewellery market in the early 1920s caused by the incoming flow of valuables from the communist Russia. Subsequently, starting from 1950s, the tax-free status of Hong Kong allowed it to preserve its role of a diamond trade hub in the South-East Asia.
Diamonds in China were still considered as needless luxury even after Mao’s death. Wearing diamonds was not encouraged. This was proved by the high tax rates (totally, coming up to 40%) imposed on diamond jewellery. Only from 2002, the taxes were gradually decreased.
Nevertheless, the consumption of diamond jewellery is growing explosively along with liberalization of the Chinese society and after the transfer of Hong Kong sovereignty to China in 1997. In the process, it has been noted that women collecting diamond adornments, are divided into two types. Those belonging to the Europeanized type deem them as a reserve fund or a treasure saved for a “rainy day.” Having received a diamond ring or some other thing on their wedding day, they treat the diamonds as their inalienable property or as a trophy even in case of divorce. Some people say that in the rugged times they are ready to sell anything but their personal valuables. Such women are encountered more often in large cities, especially onshore, such as Siangan (Hong Kong) and Shanghai. If they want to forget an awry husband, they just ask some goldsmith to reinstall their diamonds into other decorations.
The other women, who stick to conservative cultural preferences and belong to the Chinese feminine majority, do not treat diamonds as some kind of currency. They believe that if they will have to part with their jewel, no one will buy it because of its trail of grief and misfortune. On the other hand, such women will never buy jewellery in a second-hand store not to “infect” themselves and their families with alien misery. Of course, adroit merchants often deceive their clients buying second-hand things from pawnshops, junk-dealers or relatives and (after cosmetic treatment) selling them as newly made.
