I have studied and worked in the jewelry industry for 12 years. During these years, I knew the most famous ruby ‘Black Prince's Ruby’ on the crown of the British queen was found to be a spinel in 1660. ‘The Ocean Star’ of <Titanic> in the movie witnessed a beautiful love story, but people were debating whether it is sapphire or tanzanite. Corundum and its similar gemstones have become a heated market in China in recent years. So how do people distinguish their similarities and differences? What do you think of their value? Why people want to buy them? These questions intrigued me to start my research. I have learned that people paid more attention on the sense of ritual and the symbolic significance of corundum. But actually, the consumers are very traditional.

The global economy encountered a period of suspension in 2013. The market economy has been severely hit by the coronavirus in 2020. Although the second-hand luxury market still has trading volume, the meaning behind this trading volume may not be the recovery of the economy, but perhaps the omen of the economic bust. Jadeite has become a pricy commodity, but no one buys it. I did market research and interviewed the consumers and practitioner to know: what do they think of the current jadeite market? What do they think of the design and value of these products? The pessimism of practitioners and the enthusiasm of consumers resulted in contradiction. This is an obvious difference between the two parties on the value cognition of the jadeite.

我學習和從事珠寶行業12年。在這段時間中，我知道了英國女王的皇冠上最出名的紅寶石“black prince’s ruby”在1660年發現是個尖晶石。電影中《鐵坦尼克號》的“海洋之星”見證了一個美好的愛情故事。但是人們為了它是藍寶石還是坦桑石，爭論不休。剛玉和他的相似寶石，成為中國這幾年市場大熱。那么人們怎么分辨他們的相似之處和不同之處？怎么看待他們的價值？人們為什么購買他們？這些問題讓我產生了興趣并展開了調研。通過我的調研，我了解到了人們關注剛玉更多的是其儀式感和象征意義。但其實消費者們仍然很傳統。

2013年全球經濟碰到了平緩期。2020年冠狀病毒讓市場經濟受到了嚴重的打擊。雖然二手奢侈品市場還是有成交量，但是這個成交量背后的含義不是經濟的復蘇，反而或許是經濟奔潰的預兆。翡翠成為了高價商品，但卻進入了無人購買的尷尬狀態。我做了市場調查、消費者和從業者的訪問，想去了解：他們怎么看待現在的翡翠市場？怎么看待產品的設計和價值？從業者的悲觀和消費者的熱情產生了矛盾。這是雙方對翡翠價值認知上的明顯區別。