Summary The city of Mandalay, Myanmar, is known as the "city of jewels." And for good reason. This is where you'll find the world's largest jade market, where some 100,000 vendors, buyers, brokers, cutters and jewellers congregate every day to make and trade the coveted precious stone. Opened in 2000, the market now has more than 1100 shops offering raw and polished stones, jewellery, statuettes, figurines and medallions. In every case, the item's quality is indicated by the stone's shade of green and level of translucence. As we follow the brokers who negotiate trades, the workers who mine the stones and the artisans who cut and polish them, we see how important jade is to the country's economy, only recently freed from the yoke of military dictatorship. And yet the trade is controlled by the country's superpower neighbour, China, where jade is a key symbol of Chinese culture and identity. Some visionary Burmese want to turn jade into a true driver of economic development for the whole country. One Mandalay merchant, for example, dreams of turning his city into "the world centre of the jade trade," while another businessman used the precious stone to build an enormous pagoda intended to burnish the country's image and delight tourists.
Directed : Unknown
Written : Unknown
Stars : Julie Laferrière
Genres : Documentary
Release date : Jan 4, 2017
Countries of origin : Canada
Official sites : The best markets on earth- list of our productions
Language : French
Production companies : Eurêka! Productions
Summary The city of Mandalay, Myanmar, is known as the "city of jewels." And for good reason. This is where you'll find the world's largest jade market, where some 100,000 vendors, buyers, brokers, cutters and jewellers congregate every day to make and trade the coveted precious stone. Opened in 2000, the market now has more than 1100 shops offering raw and polished stones, jewellery, statuettes, figurines and medallions. In every case, the item's quality is indicated by the stone's shade of green and level of translucence. As we follow the brokers who negotiate trades, the workers who mine the stones and the artisans who cut and polish them, we see how important jade is to the country's economy, only recently freed from the yoke of military dictatorship. And yet the trade is controlled by the country's superpower neighbour, China, where jade is a key symbol of Chinese culture and identity. Some visionary Burmese want to turn jade into a true driver of economic development for the whole country. One Mandalay merchant, for example, dreams of turning his city into "the world centre of the jade trade," while another businessman used the precious stone to build an enormous pagoda intended to burnish the country's image and delight tourists.
Genres : Documentary
Release date : Jan 4, 2017
Countries of origin : Canada
Official sites : The best markets on earth- list of our productions
Language : French
Production companies : Eurêka! Productions
