Legend has it a Dong goddess named Sa Tianba once turned herself into a golden spider to teach her people the art of weaving. This summer in Beijing, that legend became a 3.27-carat emerald necklace—one of dozens of pieces in which Qeelin has spent the past year translating Dong mythology, almost literally, into gold and gemstones.
The collection made its debut at Miracle Garden, Qeelin’s 2026 fine jewellery private exhibition, staged inside a transformed Ziyunxuan courtyard in Beijing.
Unfolding across five immersive environments collectively titled Qeelin Encounters, the presentation guided guests from dawn to dusk through landscapes inspired by the mountains, villages, and natural beauty of Guizhou Province. The experiential showcase provided a fitting backdrop for the house’s most ambitious and valuable fine jewellery collection to date.
At the heart of the 2026 collection is founder and creative director Dennis Chan’s ongoing exploration of the Dong ethnic minority of Southwest China, a culture renowned for its drum-tower villages, polyphonic Grand Songs, indigo dyeing traditions, and richly symbolic embroidery. The resulting collection unfolds across three thematic chapters, each translating a different strand of Dong mythology, belief, and ritual into fine jewellery.
The opening chapter draws on Dong cosmology. Dong Chi and Infinite Chi take the Dong concept of chi—the life force binding heaven, earth, and all living things—and trace it through oval-cut rubellite and spiralling ruby, the ancient hui meander threading rose gold set with a rainbow gradient of sapphires, green garnets, London blue topaz, and diamonds.
Then, the phoenix arrives. In Dong embroidery, it is the bird of flame, wind, and rebirth; the Queen collection lets it do all three. The rose-gold version catches the bird mid-flight, its feathers hinged so they lift and settle as the wearer moves—a necklace that breathes. An azure interpretation sets marquise sapphires against a 3.21-carat pear-shaped aquamarine, sky meeting water; a crimson one answers in rubies and pink sapphires, crowned by a 3.06-carat pear-shaped Mozambican “pigeon’s blood” ruby. It is the collection’s most cinematic object: jewellery engineered to be watched, not merely worn.
Elsewhere, the chapter speaks in quieter registers. Ling Dong’s bellshaped pendants hide a diamond clapper that chimes with movement, a nod to the Dong tradition of carrying emotion in song; Wulu Shanshui renders drum towers, swallows, and golden fish across Qeelin’s first fusion of rose and white gold, culminating in a 2.14-carat pear-shaped Mozambican ruby that stands in for the rising sun.
The lion dance, performed across East Asia to ward off misfortune and welcome blessings, gives Qeelin its most animated motif. The Xi Xi lion is built in three dimensions with a hinged jaw that trembles as the wearer moves—a piece that seems to prowl. It appears through necklaces and earrings balancing a fortune ball of marquise-cut emeralds or amethysts, but the boldest turn is the 2026 brooch, where the lion crouches atop a single statement stone—a vivid cushion-cut pink tourmaline among them—so the gem becomes a stage and the lion its performer.
The final chapter returns to the Wulu, Qeelin’s most iconic silhouette and a symbol of good fortune. The hero is Wulu Link: a cascade of Akoya pearls and diamonds built around a 14.08-carat Sri Lankan sapphire, the largest centre stone in the collection, pearls standing in as a marker of Eastern refinement.
Around it, the chapter plays with variations—WuluWulu sending progressively larger forms across the neckline; Wulu Fairy tilting the silhouette into the dynamic motion of the Dunhuang murals’ flying apsaras; Wulu Treasure closing with restraint in five white gold pieces where marquise-cut diamonds float above the contour, among them a ring set with a 2.91-carat Burmese “pigeon’s blood” ruby.
The Beijing exhibition drew Qeelin’s global brand ambassadors Liu Shishi and Wang Chuqin, alongside actress Cecilia Cheung, singer Jike Junyi, actress Zhao Xiaotang, and actor Chang Huasen, each photographed in pieces from the new collection against the exhibition’s dramatic red-lit backdrop.
Since its founding in 2004, Qeelin has built its identity around reimagining Chinese cultural symbols for contemporary jewellery. Named after the Qilin—the auspicious mythical creature associated with love, prosperity, and good fortune—the house has long sought to bridge heritage and modernity through design.
Its 2026 collection represents the brand’s most immersive engagement yet with a single cultural tradition, drawing on Dong heritage not merely as visual inspiration but as a source of narrative, symbolism, and craftsmanship.
This story first appeared in Grazia Singapore.
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