CIBJO Releases Its First Jade Guide at the Centennial Congress in Vicenza

CIBJO Releases Its First Jade Guide at the Centennial Congress in Vicenza

For a long time, "jade" has meant one thing in the West and another in China. In English it is a stone: jadeite or nephrite. In Chinese, 玉 (yu) is something larger. It is a family of materials, and a cultural idea that has lived for thousands of years.

This September, that gap got a little narrower.

What happened

From September 4 to 7, 2026, the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) held its centennial congress in Vicenza, Italy. Trade bodies and companies from dozens of countries attended. At the invitation of CIBJO President Dr. Gaetano Cavalieri, a delegation from China's National Gemstone Testing Center (NGTC) and the Gems and Jewelry Trade Association of China (GAC), led by NGTC General Manager Zhang Xiaobo, took part.

During the congress, CIBJO formally released its Jade Guide. NGTC experts were core contributors. According to NGTC, this is the first time Chinese jade standards have been written into the international jewelry standards system.

Why it matters

China has built a full standards framework for jade over three decades: four national standards, twelve local standards, and more than thirty association standards covering the whole supply chain. Until now, that body of work lived mostly inside China. The Jade Guide brings parts of it into the shared language of the global trade.

NGTC framed the guide as a bridge between Western gemology and Eastern jade culture. Three points stand out.

1. One framework for the terms

The guide lays out how Yu, Jade, Fei Cui, Jadeite jade, and Nephrite jade relate to each other. In outline:

  • Yu (玉) is the broad Chinese term. It once referred only to nephrite, but in Chinese gemological practice it now covers any mineral aggregate that is beautiful, rare, durable, tough, and carved, with cultural significance.
  • Jade is the traditional Western term for a rock made mainly of jadeite or nephrite.
  • Fei Cui (翡翠) is the gemological name for a mineral aggregate composed mainly of jadeite, omphacite, kosmochlor, or any combination of them.
  • Jadeite jade is Fei Cui composed predominantly of jadeite, as the term is used in Western gemology.
  • Hetian Yu (和田玉) and Nephrite jade describe aggregates composed mainly of tremolite and actinolite.

The guide promotes Fei Cui as the international gemological name for this gem species. Yu stays as the wider cultural concept.

2. Chinese quality criteria enter the picture

The guide draws on China's national grading standards for Fei Cui and Hetian Yu. The evaluation elements include color, transparency, texture, clarity, and craftsmanship. That last one is notable. Western gem grading rarely counts the carver's hand as part of the stone's value. Chinese practice always has.

3. A shared vocabulary for trade

More than twenty trade terms commonly used in the Chinese Fei Cui and Hetian Yu market are included, each with a technical explanation, simplified Chinese, pinyin, English translation, and pronunciation. For anyone buying or selling jade across borders, this is a practical tool.

What comes next

NGTC said it will keep working with the industry to refine the guide and promote its adoption.

For collectors, the takeaway is simple. The terms you see on a certificate or a listing are starting to converge. "Fei Cui" is likely to appear more often alongside "jadeite" in the years ahead. Knowing what each word covers is part of buying well.

NGTC is also the laboratory behind TATHATĀ's own certification. If you want to see how their testing applies to an individual piece, we wrote about it here: TATHATĀ Jadeite Receives NGTC Certification: Authority Meets Authenticity.

Source: CIBJO Congress working group presents updated Jade Guide

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