From Stone to Symbol: How Diamonds Became an Icon of Love and Their Impact on Chinese Wedding Customs

Abstract

This study examines how diamonds evolved from 19th-century symbols of power into global icons of love, emphasizing the collaborative roles of De Beers’ monopoly, Hollywood films, and advertising narratives. De Beers controls the diamond output to artificially create scarcity as a foundation, while Hollywood’s Gentlemen Prefer Blondes reinterpreted diamonds as metaphors for eternal love. Until 1947, the slogan A Diamond is Forever standardized this emotional association. Upon entering China, this symbolic system interacted dynamically with traditional customs like the Three Golds. Facing rising gold prices, approximately 30% of Chinese couples born after 1995 adopted a mix model of renting gold jewelry while purchasing a diamond ring. Meanwhile, Brands such as Chow Tai Fook promoted narratives like “Diamonds engrave vows, Gold guards life,” facilitating a symbolic coexistence of Chinese and Western wedding customs and notions. Additionally, diamond brands like DR have introduced the concept of 'one for your true love,’ leveraging social media to transform diamonds into a public measure of loyalty. This has completely deconstructed the myth of scarcity concealed by the global diamond reserves exceeding one billion carats, driving the transformation of gold from a financial burden into an emotional carrier. The study concludes that wedding customs derive meaning from participants’ cultural agency rather than material value, highlighting consumers’ ability to adapt and reinterpret global symbols within local frameworks. Future research should explore how lab-grown diamonds disrupt notions of scarcity and how local media reinterpret diamond-free marriages.