As China's national strength and people's living standard have
further improved, more and more Chinese people have begun to
collect jade. There are several million jade collectors in China
today, said Hou Yancheng, chairman of the China Jade Collection
Association.
On October 9-13, the country's first jade exhibition will be
held in Beijing. To many jade collectors, this is no doubt good
news, the Beijing Evening News reported.
It will be a large and high-class jade exhibition. More than 300
jade items will be displayed and the oldest piece might be 6,000
years old.
About 10,000 years ago, China entered into the New Stone Age.
Agricultural production and animal husbandry began to appear. At
that time, ancient people began to produce tools or art pieces from
stones, said Zhou Nanquan, an expert on jade appraisal.
As stone production developed, people tended to choose hard
stones that had beautiful colors to make tools or decorative items.
This was how the earliest jade pieces had formed, he said.
China has a history of 5,000 years. However, Chinese jade
culture has existed for at least 7,000-8,000 years. Jade culture
has become an integral part of traditional Chinese culture, Zhou
noted.
A high-level jadeware forum will be held at the exhibition.
During the forum, scholars will discuss how to protect cultural
relics and promote jade culture. They will also discuss how to make
the jade collection, which often exists among the people,
recognized by more people at home and abroad.
?
(Chinanews.cn September 30, 2007)