SYNOPSIS:This experimental film project employs the cinematic language of “selection” and “gaze” to conduct a profound intervention and inquiry into the geoeconomics, cultural aesthetics, and individual existential paradoxes underlying the Myanmar jadeite industry. Since the late Qing Dynasty, Myanmar jadeite—driven by stable supply, the authoritative patronage of Empress Dowager Cixi, and its unique vitreous (glassy) luster—gradually upended the millennial Chinese aesthetic tradition of "warmth and mellowness" represented by Hetian nephrite jade. This process was distinctly top-down: originating in courtly preference, followed by elite emulation, and finally culminating in grassroots adoration. Ultimately, the "cold luster and high quality" of Myanmar jadeite became the most revered category within the Sinosphere, establishing a massive, stable, and enduring external driver that has shaped the global value system of jadeite. Using jadeite—this "gift from the heavens"—as a medium, the film reveals its existence as a double-edged sword for Myanmar society within the context of contemporary globalization.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR:Ray Ming-rui Sun is an artist and scholar dedicated to practicing at the intersection of material imagination, digital humanities, and ecological sustainability.