Jade, reinvented: How this jewellery brand is creating modern pieces for a new generation of Asians
Inspired by stars such as Lucy Liu and her own cultural heritage, Crystal Ung is producing jade jewellery for a new generation.
Like many young Asian women, Crystal Ung often was given jade jewellery when she was growing up. The men and women in her family, including her grandfather, who once had a prized jade ring, had always worn pieces made from the green gemstone.
Ung, a former fashion executive who has worked for the Council of Fashion Designers America, J. Crew and Amazon, is ethnically Chinese but her family fled the country in the 1940s for Cambodia and Laos before eventually making California their home.
As a child, Ung was told stories about her grandfather, who had a “magical jade ring that he loved so much”, she recalls.
“When he left (China), his father (gave) him this ring,” she says. “It had these special protective properties, which is something that is associated with jade.”
Anyone with Asian, particularly Chinese, ancestry will have a similar story of the protective qualities of jade in the annals of their family history.
In Chinese culture, jade has long been prized as a stone believed to have mystical powers, offering safety, prosperity and good fortune.
The stone also was used in the decorative arts, such as ornamentation on fans or fan cases, belt hooks, textiles and other objects.
University of Melbourne Chinese history professor Antonia Finnane says jade was ascribed with magical values and “Confucian virtues”, including “benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, courage and purity”.
“The cultural significance is all-encompassing,” she says, “but most of all, like all precious things, it represents or at least displays social status.”
Yet, despite the stone’s significance in her family, there was a point in Ung’s adult life when she stopped wearing jade. It wasn’t until a few years ago when she was on holiday in Bermuda that Ung spotted a vintage jade bracelet that sparked within her a deep cultural longing. “I remember trying it on, and these feelings started coming back to me — that story about my grandfather, these nostalgic feelings of being around my family,” she says. It was a lightbulb moment: “Why don’t I have more jade? Why am I not wearing it?”
She didn’t buy the bracelet. “It was $US8000 or something crazy,” she says, laughing. “It was out of my price range.” But Ung went one step better: she started her own jewellery brand called Ren, dedicated to reinvigorating the world of jade for a new Asian generation, connecting them with their cultural history and encouraging them to wear, quite literally, their heart on their wrist. Or around their neck. Or in their ears.
Running her business from Los Angeles, Ung sources her stones ethically and sustainably through the “most reputable” jade dealers in the US, with pearls coming straight from both Japan and Tennessee and opals from a mine in Australia. Each piece is made to order, minimising waste, by a small, family-run jewellery studio in Brooklyn, New York. “The raw materials are really important in creating a product that is meant to last forever,” Ung says.
Ung describes Ren’s aesthetic as “understated and under-designed on purpose”. “It’s very delicate and dainty, you’re able to mix these pieces with other items you already own,” she says. “I wanted to make pieces that you could add, or layer, or make your own.”
Ren also offers vintage jade jewellery — such as pendants and rings — alongside Ung’s designs, which include chunky gold huggie earrings with drop jade or pearl charms, a jade-inlaid heart-shaped locket, and an oval stone on a fine chain called the Lucy, named for Charlie’s Angels star Lucy Liu. Like its namesake, this necklace is incredibly chic. It’s Ung’s favourite piece in the collection and, as it happens, is also Ren’s highest selling product.
“Maybe it’s because I’m home all the time now, I don’t wear earrings as much,” she admits. “But I’m always wearing a necklace or a ring.” Such as the Michelle ring from Ren’s debut collection, a chunky gold band set with a vivid green stone.
These aren’t the jade pieces of old — on Ren’s online store, there isn’t a single Buddha pendant or thick bangle to be seen. “I think people have these preconceived notions or expectations when it comes to jade jewellery,” Ung says. “It probably is going to be big and chunky, or clunky, something my grandmother or my mother would wear — probably nothing I would want to wear.”
Ung’s hope in starting Ren is to dispense with some of these misconceptions about jade and to educate the modern shopper about this “special and beloved” stone. It’s why she’s so excited that her customer base, which largely has been Asian-Americans, recently has expanded to non-Asian buyers. “There is an entire audience that just doesn’t know that much about jade,” she says, adding that many are drawn to the “mystical qualities” of the gem. “You can believe it or not — that’s up to you,” she says. “But there is something so magical about the stone, and that will resonate with a lot of people.” When she sees orders come in from non-Asian customers, “to see people really love it, and feel connected to the designs, the stones — that’s really exciting.”
Every element of Ren, from the style names referencing famous Asian women, to the considered use of such a culturally significant material, is intended to celebrate Asian heritage. This goal was brought home to Ung during the past year, after the pandemic caused a rise in anti-Asian sentiment around the world: a survey found that 31 per cent of Asian-Americans had experienced discrimination during COVID-19.
“I had a period of really deep reflection about identity, and what it means to be Asian-American, and what it means to be American,” Ung says. “I felt really strongly about wanting to create something meaningful for our community.” The recent spate of attacks on elders in the Asian community in northern California — called out on social media by celebrities including Daniel Dae Kim, Awkwafina and Gemma Chan — has only strengthened her convictions.
“To me, Ren doesn’t need to be a billion-dollar business,” she says, laughing. “If I’m creating things that are helping keep East Asian traditions alive, if I can help strengthen our community in some way, that is meaningful to me.” If she can connect a young Asian woman to the generations before her through the wearing and loving of jade jewellery designed to be treasured forever, that’s enough.
Ung says she feels more attuned to her heritage when she is wearing the stone, so beloved of all her family and their ancestors before them. “Jade is so iconic to our culture,” she says “By wearing it you are outwardly expressing how proud you are and how much you love your culture.”
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