I considered that possibility, but the color doesn't really match the intense pink of rhodochrosite, nor are there any apparent lines of deposition. Instead, the granular structure and color are a better match for rhodonite; I can see a few little shiny cleavage planes as well. I have a rhodonite carving from Canada as well as rhodochrosite beads, and the visual comparison favors rhodonite. It must have been pretty good rough to not feature any black lines.

Yeah, I could drag out the refractometer and do a RI, but that's work...

Dragged out a charm necklace from my collection, and sure enough, the turquoise beads are carved in a very similar manner.

No wonder I thought the beads looked oddly familiar - I was focused on their resemblance to the blue glass shou beads, and totally forgot about the carved stone charms.

The meaning of the Shou symbol is about human longevity. The Shou symbol became degraded because it is time effective to just make a cross hatched mark.