Oscar Chun

This Week on the Beijing LSA+: Tea!

Tea is not only a beverage, but a core element in Chinese culture. This week on the Beijing Language Study Abroad+ (LSA+), we explored Chinese tea culture through a tea ceremony class and visiting the Lao She Teahouse, a venue hosting a variety of traditional Chinese performance arts. Come learn more about tea with me!

We began our tea ceremony class with a short lecture about the history of Chinese tea culture and the philosophy behind it. The style of tea ceremony we were taught was developed during the Ming dynasty, marked by the 蓋碗 (gàiwǎn), the lidded bowl used to brew the tea leaves in. The 蓋碗 has three parts: the lid, symbolizing heaven; the cup, representing humanity; and the saucer, for the earth. The act of brewing tea symbolizes harmony between the three elements, a mini universe you can hold in your hands, reflecting the emphasis on interconnectedness and balance in Chinese culture. 

We were also able to smell a variety of teas from our instructor's collection. I'm very familiar with standard green and black tea bags, but what I didn't know was how many more varieties of loose leaf tea existed. From earthy aged oolong, to light white tea, there were so many forms of tea and unique flavor profiles to sniff.

From larger philosophical understandings, to cultural intricacies—like filling someone's cup to the brim is a signal to leave—our tea ceremony class was an interesting facet of Chinese culture to explore. Since there's too many ceremonial practices and fun facts to share in one blog post, here's an abbreviated explanation of our tea ceremony instruction:

First we smell the tea…

Throughout the class, our instructor emphasized smelling the tea, especially noting how the tea's scent evolves throughout the brewing process. It was really relaxing to take a few moments and appreciate the unique scent of each tea we practiced with.

Then we pour our first brew into the fair cup…

Depending on the type of tea, you may have to pour out the initial brews as the tea "opens". But once the tea is ready for drinking, its poured into a 公道杯 (gōngdàobēi), a "fair cup", for easier sharing. Since we were brewing for a big group, we needed two to three brews to have enough tea to share. But the tea's intensity and temperature may vary between brews, which is why we use a 公道杯. The 公道杯 allows different brews to mix together, creating an even drinking experience—seen as a form of respect between the server and guest.

And lastly, we can have a taste!

After practicing with two types of tea, four students were invited to pick their own tea and perform for the entire class

Overall, the tea ceremony class not only gave me a new perspective on drinking tea, but also a new medium to explore respect, nature, and philosophy's roles in Chinese culture. The next day, we caught a show at the Lao She Teahouse, where we experienced drinking tea in a different environment. 

At Lao She, our tea experience was much less formal than our class ceremony. Rather than brewing from one 蓋碗 and sharing with a 公道杯, we each had our own 蓋碗 of green tea that we drank directly out of. Thanks to our tea ceremony class, we're now able to make these comparisons and talk about different tea drinking experiences throughout our time in China. 

The main event at Lao She wasn't the tea, but the variety of performances including Sichuan face-changing opera, witty cross-talk comedy, and a man doing tricks with a flower pot on his head!

Our tea adventure reflects something I really enjoy about the Beijing LSA+—how we're encouraged to learn not just the Chinese language but also about Chinese culture. In class, we discuss Chinese culture from an academic lens, like how the belief systems of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism have influenced society. But we also get to experience it first-hand, such as in our tea ceremony class and our visit to the teahouse. There's still so much more to explore in China, so stay tuned for more posts!