Tears of Mermaids: The Secret Story of Pearls
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For Tears of Mermaids, Stephen G. Bloom traveled 30,000 miles to trace a single pearl—from the moment a diver off the coast of Australia scoops from the ocean floor an oyster containing a single luminescent pearl to the instant a woman on the other side of the world fastens the clasp of a strand containing the same orb. Bloom chronicles the never-before-told saga of the global pearl trade by gaining access to clandestine outposts in Japan, China, the Philippines, French Polynesia and Australia. Bloom infiltrates high-tech pearl farms and processing facilities guarded by gun-toting sentries, and insinuates himself into the lives of powerful international pearl lords. Bloom farms for pearls in rural China, goes behind scenes at million-dollar auctions in Hong Kong, trails pearl brokers and Internet entrepreneurs in Asia, hires himself out as a deckhand on an Australian pearling vessel, and goes backstage at Christie’s for a fast and furious auction of the most expensive pearl ever sold. Teeming with rogue humor and uncanny intelligence, Tears of Mermaids weaves a nonstop detective story of the world’s most enduring gem.Publishers WeeklyIn 2003, author and journalism professor Bloom (A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America) embarked on a journey "to track a single pearl" from the ocean floor to the string on a woman's neck. Over 30,000 miles and "four hectic globe-trotting years" later, Bloom concluded that the task was impossible; still, he had succeeded in tracing the pearl industry across history and through cultures, profiling a motley crew of divers, sorters, pearl lords, and others along the way (including a woman even more obsessed than Bloom, who believes pearls speak to her in spiritual messages). Bloom travels to spots like the Philippines; Australia; Kobe, Japan ("known worldwide as Pearl City"); and the Chinese hotspots currently giving Kobe a run for it global business. In China, Bloom learns the fascinating technique by which farmers seed a single large, fresh-water mussel to generate as many as 50 pearls at once, nearly identical in quality to much more expensive Kobe pearls. Average readers may find more than they ever wanted to know on the subject, but anyone who's ever dreamed about a string of black Tahitians will be enchanted. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Introduction From Diver's Hand to Woman's Bosom 11 In the Beginning 72 A Pearl Primer: Some of What You Need to Know 173 Entranced 284 Into the Mix 355 The Rana of Fresno 426 Pearl City 567 Hong Kong-Dealers' Paradise 758 The Traders 859 Across the Chinese Border to the Transformatron 10510 Faye's World 11711 Tammy and a (Sort of) Barbara Bush Sighting at the Hongqiao Pearl Market 12612 Miss Pearl 13613 The Way of the Internet: A Trek from the Neighborhood Jewelry Store to the Rural Chinese Villages of Haian and Xuwen 14014 To the Source 15315 Karaoke-Krazy 16116 A Dog in My Crotch 16517 On JB's Farm 17318 Sold! 18719 French Polynesia: The Pearl that Got Away 20620 Snakes & Crocs 23021 Australia's First Family of Pearls 23722 Fight for Pearl Supremacy: The Strange Case of the Otto Gerdau Co. 24923 Life as a Deckhand 26624 On Board 27625 At Sea 28526 The Show 29227 The Comer 30128 The Payoff 31129 Where It All Began 31930 The Dogs of Cubagua 32931 El Senor Sixto of Cubagua 33632 Nicholas El Gato's Legacy 342Acknowledgments 349Endnotes 357Index 367
