The Naxi people of Yunnan, China has a solid cultural foundation that originated from its primitive Dongba religion. Dongba culture contains rich artistic connotations, from Dongba characters to scriptures, literature, music and drawings, to name a few.

Founded in May this year, jeweller Dong's derives inspiration from different aspects of this traditional culture to create original and trendy silver jewellery products.

Liu Wei, the company's general manager, said it took two years to complete a selection of 99 unique silver jewellery styles. Dong's jewellery pieces fall within the RMB500 to RMB2,000 price range.

Its creative team is composed of designers from China, the US, Japan, Korea and Thailand. Targeted at energetic and fashionable Chinese millennials and Gen Z buyers, the brand has boutiques in Beijing and Yunnan's Lijiang City. It also maintains a digital presence. Wei further stated, “We actively invite jewellery designers from around the world to collaborate with us. We also look for designers from China's Designer Alliance to co-develop new collections with. Each jewellery piece by Dong's is labeled with our logo and the designer's signature.”

The brand brought its design and sales teams to the June Hong Kong Jewellery & Gem Fair, where it had expected to collect direct feedback from customers and look into market preferences, and decide which styles to further develop, continued Wei.

“People know very little about Dongba culture, but everyone from Yunnan knows it. They resonate with the symbols and totems from our silver jewellery and the meanings behind these,” he revealed. “In China, there hasn't been a trendy silver jewellery brand based on Chinese culture.

We hope to expand our presence beyond Yunnan, and create diversified products inspired by Chinese culture from different places.”