Jade is his trade

Ice Butterflies was a highlight of the artist's show at the National Museum of China in 2012. He plans to tour the world with his works next month.

Wang began sculpting jade at the age of 19, and says that the art requires extreme patience. It usually takes months or years for Wang to finish one piece, and he spends up to eight hours a day carving jade.

"There's an old Chinese phrase that says, 'One can't tell whether it's the man who carves the jade or it's the jade that carves the man,'" he says.

Wang has created nearly 100 works over the past 20 years, including dozens of "big pieces" like Ice Butterflies, a highlight of his well-known show at the National Museum of China in 2012. It took him five years to make 13 jade pieces resembling butterflies and melting ice. The jade pieces represent the Earth's deteriorating environment.

Wang says he plans to make another 200 jade butterflies to represent all of the countries in the world.

In 2005, Christie's held Wang's first auction in Hong Kong. After that sale, Wang became a frequently traded name at Chinese auction houses such as Poly and Hanhai.

Wang says he wants to blur the line between jade art and jade sculpture. For hundreds of years, the stone has been a mark of royal families and feudal nobility. Jade sculpture has long been measured according to its purity and level of transparency.

Wang emphasizes the artistic design of the greenstone. "If people visiting my studio only want to discuss how good the material is, I will immediately ask them to leave," he says.

"I hope more people join me in emphasizing the artistic design when making a jade work. It's a better way to enlarge jade's influence in the future," adds Wang.

Wang says he's worried about the shortage of artists dedicated to jade sculpture. He plans to set up an art foundation to cooperate with art colleges and support students who pursue a career in jade sculpture.