WE ARE ALL CHINESE
In some Asian cultures a person’s name changes as they grow. A different name is given to a newborn baby, a different name is given to them when they goes to kindergarten, school, when they enter adulthood, become a parent and so on. These cultures have come to the conclusion that the different stages of life make up a different person, so that they should adopt a new, more fitting name. Apparently, this is the same with stones that come to us from distant lands. The creativity of dealers in adopting new names for stone knows no bounds.
I observe the creation of stone names with great interest. In many material importing companies we seem to have weekly creative briefings where various “Pink Flower”, “Night Blues”, “Hard Wood”, “Beautiful Mekong” etc. are created. One has to appreciate the poetic soul of one’s fellow artists. It takes an out-of-the-box mind to come up with “Moonlight River” in reference to magmatic rock.
All great, because in principle the trade name is arbitrary, but… it should not be misleading. Little by little, this misrepresentation has been going on for a long time in the form of making changes to the name itself – adding one letter (Llieto Red) or adding the adjective NEW – New Impala, New Viscont White. Materials magically travelled from Finland, South Africa and India to China. Apparently, someone had the same idea, like the sports shoe salesmen at the legendary 10th-Anniversary Stadium (Stadion Dziesięciolecia) in Warsaw.
Now the materials have stopped travelling. Instead, we observe a tendency for whole cities, regions and countries to be moving to the Middle Kingdom. A few years ago, in one of the offers from China, I saw a gray granite called Żbik (the name of one of the quarries in Strzegom, Poland, named after a very respectable family of stonemasons). Well, they must have moved the quarry to China, then. In another advertisement I read that we could buy Chinese Carrara in the form of marble slabs. It might also be interesting to call everything that is black Swedish – moving a whole country to India is no longer so easy, but apparently it is becoming possible.
What is wrong with all that? It is misleading for the customer. People who want to buy a tombstone made of Strzegom granite – let them get it. People who want fine Carrara marble – let them get it. People who want Swedish diabase – let them get it. But do not fool your customers. Not everyone wants to be Chinese.
Source: Kurier kamieniarski
Author: Michał Firlej | Published: 3.3.2021
