Paper Short Abstract:

This paper provides an ethnographic account of Burmese jade traders in Mandalay between tradition and digital intermediation in the context of informal, ethnic network-based cross-border trade between Myanmar and China.

Paper Abstract:

95% of the world’s highest quality jadeite, or jade, comes from Myanmar, and most of it is exported to China. This commerce has been long-dominated by ethnic networks and by informality of different types, from smuggling to tax avoidance to downright illicit trade and workers’ exploitation. This has created a system of “stateless commerce,” in Barak Richman’s characterisation of the diamond industry, that is trade based on ethnic networks that thrive without lawyers, court systems and state coercion (Richman, 2017). Burmese traders have historically been marginalized in this commerce, which is dominated by Chinese, in particular Yunnanese, traders. They still play an important role in the market in Mandalay, especially in setting the gems' prices, an extensive process of haggling and brokering that involve multiple middlemen, a concept known in Burmese as kyait (like) yaung (sell) kyait (like) wel (buy). The introduction of WeChat and social media live stream sale has brought in new dimensions to the brokering process that brings jade from the Burmese sellers based in Mandalay, Myanmar to consumers or traders based in China. Based on a six-month long ethnography of small-scale Burmese jade sellers and agents in the Mandalay jade market, this paper explores their formal and informal practices and argues that the technology-mediated cross-border trade brings in efficiencies and a wider market reach, but also opens up new spaces of exploitation and further marginalization of Burmese traders in a field that remains heavily organised around ethnic networks.