Tea

Yesterday I went to my first event at the China Culture Center, which is an organization for expats that organizes tours around China, but also cultural learning experiences and classes, in things from tai chi to zen meditation to chinese calligraphy.  Part of me feels a bit silly going to an expat organization and spending money to learn about Chinese culture when here I am, living in China, but I have realized that I am far from immersion here in my could-be-anywhere-in-the-world apartment, living by myself, and working in an office from 8-5 every day.  I just don't have the opportunities that I would have living with a Chinese family, in a small town, or not taking a large portion of my time doing very Western scientific research.  So, I've decided that since I stand out as foreign a mile around I might as well act like one and maybe learn something about Chinese culture.

Last night, I went to a lecture about Chinese tea, with associated tasting.  I was late thanks to getting lost when I got off the metro and wandering around for 45 minutes, so I didn't catch the credentials of the teachers, but there was a man talking with many pictures and explanations about different kinds of tea processing, picking, fermenting (I didn't actually know some teas were fermented until yesterday) and then a lady, in more traditional clothing, a 'tea ceremony master' who would sit down very formally at the table and make us each type of tea.

Her movements as she was making the tea were very graceful and purposeful, and there are more steps to making tea in the proper Chinese way than I realized.  You have to warm up the teapot and tea glasses first with hot water, then for each type of tea there is an appropriate number of steeps before it is perfect to drink.  The top of the teapot goes on with a little flourish while the tea is steeping.  We all had these little tiny tea cups for tasting, and we tried green (lu cha), black (hong cha), oolong (oolong cha), and pu'er cha and had descriptions of several more.

Each step of a Chinese tea ceremony has a bit of poetry to describe the actions and the thoughts and feelings of the drinkers.  I thought this was really neat.  For example, as you prepare the utensils you will be using, the Chinese text reads "The peacock opens his tail, symbolizing showing of his exquisite utensils".  As you warm the pot and cups in hot water, "the Black Dragon (tea leaves) goes into his palace."  As you pour the tea, "from high mountains flow waters, long flow of a fine stream."  And my favorite, as you pour the tea evenly into aroma cups and end with a few tea drops falling gently into each cup, "The Dragon is the king of rain, and the phoenix nods her head."