I can answer that last question. The Chinese have been doing the same thing for thousands of years and from what I saw when I was there they are going to keep doing it exactly the same for the next thousand years.
This carving is stunning in photos but if you saw it in hand you probably would not be able to talk for a while.
One painter did Chinese style paintings with European style brushes and died a very wealthy man but it is rare to see someone doing something different.
But I was on the fringes of the carving world and not at the center where this was done so I may be way off base here. It is also amazing how they will finance a stone purchase the way we would finance a car or house. Their love of stone goes way over anything you would find here in the west.
Most of my experience there was with a different stone that is softer than jade but almost oily to the touch instead of dry like our alabaster. The only place it has been found is in China and all the rough that is left is in private hands and only shows up when the father dies and the child wants the big bucks. The four color carvings are very rare but one, two and three color carvings can be had for a price. I bought a very small baby dragon for 600 yuan (about 30 dollars) which was cheap because it has some small fractures in the bottom. A no no in China. They will spend hours with a high intensity light looking into a stone before they buy it.
Jim
Here is a three color carving that is pretty awesome and I will show some other pieces if ya'll want to see them.
