As Jade Rides a Wave of Popularity, a Nomenclature Debate Nears Resolution

By Victoria Gomelsky | July 09, 2025

Jade lovers have been embroiled in a nomenclature debate that appears to be nearing a resolution.

For many in the jade community, jadeite is the name for a kind of pyroxene rock that they insist should be called by its traditional Chinese name, fei cui (“FAY-choy”).

In December 2023, GIA announced that its new enhanced jade report would include “a dedicated section under ‘Results’ that details the type, when appropriate,” according to a press release.

“The commonly used trade term ‘Fei Cui’ will be listed in the comments section when appropriate with the explanatory note stating that ‘Fei Cui’ refers to jadeite, omphacite, and kosmochlor,” the report said.

Following that decision, Mason-Kay, one of the industry’s most prominent jade dealers, recently decided that it, too, would include a description of fei cui in the notes of its Jadeite Authenticity Reports.

“This makes a big statement to the jade community that we are embracing new nomenclature in the American trade,” Jordan Wentz of Mason-Kay tells JCK.

The gemologist Richard W. Hughes, a leading advocate for the fei cui terminology, which he discussed on a recent episode of The Jewelry District, explained his rationale in a video posted by Wentz, aka “Jewels of the Trade.”

The nomenclature shift has implications for the Guatemalan jade now entering the marketplace. At the Tucson gem shows in February, designers and jade lovers were abuzz with excitement over the fresh supply of translucent jadeite, or fei cui, from an ancient deposit in the Central American nation’s Motagua Valley—much of it blue-green, but some virtually indistinguishable from the imperial jade of Myanmar, said Hughes, a co-owner of Lotus Gemology in Bangkok and a coauthor of three books on jade.

“This is the word that the Chinese gem trade believes is most appropriate,” Hughes told JCK in Tucson. “We’ve been trading this stone for centuries. The stone hasn’t changed. Only the labeling has. And in the West, there is a very common belief that somehow those tricky Chinese are trying to put one over on us by using the term fei cui. But it’s not like that at all.”

Top: Pendant in 18k yellow gold with jade, diamond, and ruby, $10,010; Mason-Kay