The village inside the Wulu: How Qeelin turns Dong life into luxury jewelry

On stepping into the idyllic garden where doves flitted past grey-tilted roofs and peacocks strolled idly under the mellow sun of May, guests were met by an openwork Wulu screen that opened the door to Qeelin's 2026 fine jewelry private exhibition in Beijing. From there, the show moved through five cinematic realms, from dawn-lit mountains resembling Guizhou's landscape to a nocturnal courtyard where a Wulu silhouette shimmered over a pond. The exhibition held in Beijing earlier this month, showcased Qeelin's latest collection, inspired by founder and creative director Dennis Chan's trip to a Dong village in southwest China's Guizhou province. From the polyphonic tradition of the Grand Song and the centuries-old drum towers and wind-and-rain bridges to the everyday life of the Dong people, each strand of this rich cultural terrain finds its trace on the newly released pieces. "The exhibition has gone way beyond a pure commercial initiative but an opportunity for us to show the best of Qeelin through the 34 jewelry creations inspired by Dong culture and to emotionally connect with our customers," Qeelin's CEO Christophe Artaux told Jing Daily at the exhibition. Digging ever deeper into Dong culture Apart from the private showing, Qeelin also made a documentary of Chan's journey to Zhaoxing Dong Village, China's largest and oldest Dong ethnic settlement to display the sources of inspiration. The short film follows Chan as he sings the Grand Song with local residents, works alongside artisans, and visits drum towers and wind-and-rain bridges that have long been communal hubs for the Dong people and central to their sense of identity. It was not the first time that Qeelin engaged with Dong culture. Back in early 2025, its presentation of the Grand Song with piano accompaniment already set itself apart amid the cluster of Chinese New Year luxury campaigns. The living oral history of the Dong people in a cappella chorus form was enlisted as a UNESCO cultural heritage in 2009. With that serenade, Qeelin became the first luxury house to bring the ancient repertoire on the global fashion stage. This time, the jeweler moved beyond the 2,500-year-old music into a broader cultural inquiry, tracing the architecture, craft, and beliefs shaping the ethnic group's identity. It's noted that Qeelin also funded the restoration of the drum tower and wind-and-rain bridge in Lituan, one of the five clan-based clusters in Zhaoxing. First built in the Southern Song Dynasty, both were held together purely by wood and now face mounting preservation challenges. The move continued the brand's heritage-preservation efforts, following its support for research on Sui and Tang dynasty accessories at the Dunhuang caves in 2024. As Qeelin turns Dong culture into a source of fine jewelry inspiration, its restoration support also raises a broader question facing luxury brands today: What responsibility do they bear toward the communities and cultural heritage they draw from? Jing Daily brought the question to Artaux. Jing Daily: Qeelin has long been an advocate of local cultures. Given your support for the restoration of the ancient architecture in Lituan, how do you define the brand's responsibility to "give back" to the cultures that inspire its designs? Artaux: Qeelin is a brand rooted in cultural heritage and the storytelling of China's beauty. Our mission — to portray this beauty in a modern way — naturally extends to safeguarding the cultural treasures that inspire us. Every time we have the opportunity to explore the "beauty of China" — through symbols, through people, through nature — we seek to connect with it authentically and give back in a meaningful way. We have done this on many occasions. For us, sponsoring the drum tower renovation is a way to preserve the spiritual heart of the Dong community. And beyond that, we also collaborated with Dong embroiderers, creating pieces that we shared with our clients — a gesture that allows their renowned craftsmanship to be appreciated far beyond their villages. Ancient codes for uncertain times Qeelin's new releases draw on a multitude of Dong cultural codes tracing back to the distant past – the drum tower, the goddess, the phoenix, the golden spider, as well as its people's craft and philosophy, translating their opulence into jewelry designs that carry both cultural gravity and contemporary wearability. These references were worked into not just the structure but the texture of each artwork. What is particularly striking is the Grand Song-inspired Ling Dong series. Each piece hides a diamond as the "bell tongue," producing a clear, delicate chime when worn. “What matters here is not just that it makes a sound but that it responds to a traditional Chinese understanding of sound and spirit,” Artaux noted. “In Chinese philosophy, 'sound' is never merely sensory but seen as an externalization of emotion, qi, and the order of the world. And what's fascinating about the Grand Song goes beyond its musical form to the very idea of harmony and coexistence of different beings in Eastern culture. I think there's a Chinese saying going, 'All living creatures grow together without harming one another.'" "What Qeelin is trying to translate therefore is the spirit behind the Grand Song," he continued. "It also reflects a Chinese philosophy that meaning is not always shown directly but held within structure, rhythm, and even blank space." In this sense, he pointed out, the jeweler is giving form to the more intangible, subtle aspects of Chinese culture, one that can be felt and understood through rhythm, resonance, as well as the philosophy of harmony, and coexistence. "I think this is what today's consumers are seeking: something meaningful and grounding, especially in a world that feels increasingly unsettled," he said. Other outstanding designs include the Spider Flower line which reproduces the precise geometry of Dong brocade through the pavé-set spiderweb design, and the Wulu Shanshui pieces that fold dawn and dusk scenes of a Dong village into its iconic shape. The Azure Silhouette pieces reveal Dong's wild plant-based indigo dyeing technique, a craft passed from mother to daughter and tied to familial bond, labor division, and social structure. These designs bring into sharper focus the theme of the collection – "animism." For instance, the new Wulu Shanshui applies to body adornment, with the drum tower, swallows carrying twigs, and goldfish rendered in the intimate scale of jewelry pieces crafted from rose and white gold and accented with gemstones and pearls. Spider Flower pieces play on the combination of a spider, which signifies abundance and fertility, with the peony – an emblem of wealth. Legend has it that the Dong goddess Sa Tianba transformed into a golden spider to teach weaving and spun a web that signified cosmic order. In this way, Qeelin weaves the legend into contemporary jewelry grammar, in a precise grasp of the social mood among luxury consumers who crave spiritual connection and emotional anchor. For them, these pieces could carry a primal blessing from the mountains of an ancient culture – modern amulets for uncertain times. This China storytelling comes from the teams' curiosity and cultural exploration, Artaux noted, attributing the collection's cultural depth and its close alignment with contemporary social mood to his teams, especially the design team. He's been supporting their creative journey at every step. Jing Daily: As the fashion market shifts toward "story-driven luxury," how has Qeelin been leveraging the depth of Chinese heritage to build a unique competitive edge? Artaux: As a Chinese brand, our storytelling and everything else started with the product. It's not that we only tell the cultural heritage but we recreate and revisit in a modern way which can connect to the true world – to the modernity of China and the modernity of the consumers. You mentioned that young people are happy to connect with tradition, but maybe they don't want to do it in a traditional way. So our mission , across our design team and all consumer-facing touchpoints, from communication to consumer engagement, is to draw on the country's rich cultural inspiration, engage with it, and express it through jewelry in a way that feels meaningful and relevant to what's going on with the market today. This is where we see our point of difference. On top of that, I think we have a sense of purpose of everything we do. Especially for the new generation, pure transaction doesn't work anymore. They need to feel that when they wear a piece of jewelry, it is more than an adornment but becomes an emotional token – something that can connect them to moments in their personal lives, their familial bonds, their cultural belonging. At the same time, it should carry a sense of ethical responsibility. That's why giving back becomes important for us, and where we believe the brand has a role to play. Through this approach, Qeelin is helping push Chinese cultural storytelling in luxury toward a more granular and less generic direction, in addition to grounding its heritage-focused Corporate Social Responsibility commitments in tangible preservation work. The creation of an ultimate experience With the latest campaign, Qeelin has expanded the luxury playbook of inspiration and craft storytelling into a full-chain consumer experience – from Chan's field research in Guizhou, the documentary, to the immersive exhibition in Beijing. This process allowed consumers to trace the creative journey behind these delicate jewels. There are luxury houses that have in recent years started foregrounding the inspiration and creative processes behind their iconic pieces, mostly through exhibitions at museums or galleries. But few have revealed such an entire journey as Qeelin, which has gone above and beyond in offering a timely response to the fast-rising experience economy. In this exhibition, Qeelin placed its clientele inside the making of the collection, though at times raw and informal, rather than merely in front of each exquisite finished piece. As Artaux said when asked about how such a showing could engage the audience differently from a conventional jewelry exhibition or a boutique experience: "Besides the products themselves, the exhibition is also an opportunity to build emotional connection with our customers, because they get into an environment which is way less transactional but far more immersive. It allows our customers to learn more about the brand itself. From the very beginning, this has actually been at the heart of who we are: building emotional connection through cultural heritage and translating it into a contemporary creative language with a global sensibility. The experience economy is booming. According to the World Economic Forum, 78% of millennials choose to spend money on a desirable experience and this trend is extending to every age group. The experience economy in China has become a new mainstream market force: It surpassed 18 trillion RMB ($2.6 trillion) in market size in 2025, up 22% year on year, far exceeding the global average. By walking consumers through the journey of how each jewelry piece was envisioned and brought into being in a multi-sensory way, Qeelin may offer a useful model for how maisons can turn inspiration, craftsmanship, and storytelling into a fuller brand experience. Its intimacy and educational function also reflect the slower but more discerning trend in luxury consumption. A long game: From a jewelry brand to a cultural brand Back in 1997, Chan travelled to the Silk Road and was deeply taken by the murals of the Mogao caves. Seven years later he founded Qeelin, bringing to life his vision of infusing Chinese cultural legacies into modern jewelry aesthetics. Since its founding, the atelier has been exploring the many facets of Chinese culture, in particular niche traditions scattered across the country's vast terrain, most of which remain less visible in mainstream luxury storytelling. Following each exploration, it weaves local cultural elements into jewelry craftsmanship, creating a collection with a distinct narrative identity. "Rather than simply borrowing from culture, Qeelin is actually seeking to root itself in it," a fashion industry professional remarked after touring the exhibition. Each time, Wulu was reinterpreted with a vernacular culture and presented in a new form, for which Qeelin has become known as the "master of Wulu." This continuity has made Wulu more of a flexible design system for Qeelin, one that can absorb new cultural references without losing its symbolic clarity. Jing Daily: The iconic Wulu was once again reimagined in new forms infused with Dong culture. For example, Wulu Shanshui folds the scenes of Dong life, from the drum tower which has been serving as a community center since ancient times to the auspicious goldfish. We noticed that no other brands have ever used such an Eastern totem as much as Qeelin. Could you talk about why Wulu has become a recurring theme in each collection? Artaux: Wulu was introduced to the jewelry category 22 years ago by Dennis Chan. He was the first to introduce Wulu as an auspicious symbol, starting with the beautiful story of Maggie Cheung wearing it at the Cannes Festival.. This gives us both the confidence and the legitimacy to continue nurturing Wulu. In addition, we've been elevating Wulu as an icon embodying blessing and good fortune, which is very much into the very intrinsic identity of Qeelin. What allows Wulu to be reinterpreted again and again is that it's not a fixed symbol, but more of a living vessel of Chinese culture that can encompass plenty of emotions. So this time, our focus was not simply to incorporate Dong elements into the shape of Wulu, but to consider how Dong people's understanding of nature, life, and community could fit in the spirit of Wulu itself. For example, the drum tower is more than a protected architecture but also a symbol of communal spirit. The goldfish is not only an auspicious animal but a Chinese expression of vitality, abundance, and the flow of life. Besides the iconic Wulu, the brand has built a design vocabulary around other Chinese cultural icons, from the lion dance-inspired Xi Xi and playful panda-shaped Bo Bo to Yu Yi, named after the "Ruyi" lock or longevity lock. In recent years it has extended to short films exploring regional folk cultures, such as the Golden Dragon Parade in Guangxi and the Majestic Drums and Gongs of Southern Shanxi, both part of its "Discover the Beauty of China" project. This commitment to translating the abundance of Chinese culture into contemporary jewelry in a versatile, ingenious way plays a key role in helping Qeelin stand out in the highly competitive luxury market. Jewelry has rapidly emerged as a high-margin hard luxury category amid market turbulence in recent years. In March 2026, Kering created "Kering Jewelry" which separated its four jewelry brands – Boucheron, Pomellato, Dodo, and Qeelin – from "Other Houses" and positioned the new division as a primary growth area for the company. This dedicated section reported a sales growth of 14% in Q1 2026. As posted in the report, Qeelin "recorded a strong performance, driven by Asia." "We are a brand originating from China," Artaux said. "Our mission is to excavate the depth and richness of Chinese cultural heritage and propose it to the world in a modern language. This is much of a cultural exercise."

The village inside the Wulu: How Qeelin turns Dong life into luxury jewelry

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag

Upgrade to Pro

Sectors

Insights

Company

The village inside the Wulu: How Qeelin turns Dong life into luxury jewelry

How Bottega Veneta weaved China’s forever it bag