Evolution of Asian Jewelry: A Historical and Cultural Analysis

Analysis, Pages 5 (1052 words)

Views

1953

The topic of this paper presents jewellery style and development in Asia, and the problem which will be resolved in this report is "why and how has Asian jewellery has altered in time and what has influenced its advancement?" Jewellery design is a relatively new industry although it stems from ancient activities such as goldsmith. Nowadays, jewellery style has been turned into a modern-day art that uses many skills.

In this paper, Asian jewellery design will be researched and analyzed due to its unique style and different product picked that attracts people all over the world.

Don't use plagiarized sources. Get your custom essay on

“ Evolution of Asian Jewelry: A Historical and Cultural Analysis ”

Get custom paper

NEW! smart matching with writer

Specifically, the development of Asian jewellery style will be mentioned with a quick introduction of some jewellery in various time period, while several design concepts will be highlighted. In addition, the impact of the development and the reason that the development happens will also be gone over in the report. Moreover, some appropriate material, such as well-known designers and popular wearers, will be consisted of, along with the modern market trends.

The research study of the subject question will be conducted first by utilizing library research, including analysis of historic records and files. After collecting all data and information relevant to the topic, an analysis of the modification and advancement of Asian jewellery design will be conducted in order to determine the development procedure and the impact of the Asian jewelry style.

This paper itself has been divided into sections for ease of reading and explanation of the significance of cross-media promotion. In section 2, the research study concern will be totally introduced, and the literature review will be included in area 3.

After that, the research study approach will be talked about in section 4, and an analysis and synthesis will be displayed in section 5 and 6. In section 7 and 8, there will be research study results and conclusion.

Research study Concern This research study paper was established as part of CQUniversity's Master of Creative Business's Arts Administration Research course requirements.

The topic of Asian Jewellery is of particular personal interest to the researcher. This paper considers why and how has Asian jewellery has changed over time and what has influenced its development? It will also consider why people like or dislike certain styles of jewellery and the people and companies which design the jewellery.

This paper also considers how jewellery has become an essential fashion accessory for the contemporary person. How it complements clothing and a person’s overall look. A comparison of styles and influences will also be undertaken. Different styles are also considered and as part of this topic, cultural influences (countries) and their effect on designs and style of every-day jewellery.

Literature Review

Generally speaking, jewelry may have several meanings, including status symbol, accessories, meaningful symbols, etc. People living in top class of a society normally wear many different expensive jewelries types every day, which can be considered as a status symbol showing other people how rich they are. In addition, normal people wear jewelries mainly as accessories in order to make them look prettier. Moreover, some religion will let their believers wear jewelries to show their faithfulness and to make them believe that they are totally blessed and prevented from any harmful things. In this case, jewelries can be also taken as a symbol of group membership.

In Asia, specifically, there is thousands of years’ history of jewelry manufacture with several different uses among various cultures, especially in India and China. In ancient Asian cultures, jewelry was normally worn by women in order to show their status, beauty and wealth.

It is recorded that the history of jewelry making can be traced back to over 5,000 years ago, which has been regarded as the longest continuous legacy in the area of jewelry. Jewelry making started in the Indus Valley Civilization which is located in the position of Pakistan at present. (REF)

In China, jewelry making started around 5,000 years ago, the same period as India. However, it did not become popular until the spread of Buddhism 2,000 years ago.

In China

Material

Speaking of material, in ancient China, silver was used more frequently than gold. In early Chinese jewelry, blue kingfisher feathers were introduced and were tied onto jewelry as a kind of decoration. Later, in jewelry design, blue gems and glass showed up, and they were added into jewelry. However, in terms of stone, jade was the undoubtedly most popular material. An ancient Chinese says like that: "gold is estimable, but jade is priceless." The reason people favored jade is its quality, including hardness, durability, smooth, beauty, etc. The design of the first jade jewelry in ancient China was quite simple. However, the design evolved drastically as time goes on. Even, it is evident that compound milling machines were involved in the jade jewelry produced between the 4th and 7th centuries BC.

Types

There were numerous different types of jewelry in China. Surprisingly, very few earrings were found by modern archaeologists. The most common jewelry is amulets that normally cut with some traditional Chinese symbols or Buddhism symbols in order to keep the wearer safe.

In addition, there are also differences between men’s jewelry and women’s jewelry. For instance, women’s head decoration is very detailed and complex, mainly made by gold and silver and other items such as jade, while men’s only decorative jewelry is the hat button, made by silver or gold that showed the man’s rank.

Symbolize

Moreover, in terms of the symbols cut on the jewelry, there were some common traditions in ancient China. For instance, the long (dragon) and Fenghuang (phoenix) were the symbol of power and the long (dragon) mean was the power of nature and universe, wisdom and longevity. Fenghuang (phoenix) was the King of Birds, that is a legendary bird, and it is meaning five virtues of benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity. In Chinese history, normal people could not use the dragon symbols on their jewelry because the famous five clawed long (dragon) was the unique symbol representing the Chinese emperor. Also, the symbol of Fenghuang (phoenix), which is phoenix, was another royal symbol, representing the empress. Citizens were not allowed to use such symbols, or they would be sentenced to death.