How to carve a Rabbit

I came across this little video online. It was produced in China and labelled how to carve a jade rabbit. The translation is dodgy. The stone the craftsman is using is an agate. The Chinese use two characters for agate. One of them is the same character used for jade, so it’s a common mistranslation. In addition, the Chinese word for jade -Yu - was often taken to mean any beautiful carved stone. This is no longer the case in China and the agate carvers who tend to be in the far north of China don’t claim the stone they carve is jade. It’s a nice little video, though, and a good way to see out the Chinese Year of the Rabbit and usher in the Year of the Dragon, which is almost upon us. Learn more about jade at www.jadefiend.com