China News Agency, Hangzhou, August 28th: Why can Chinese tea become a popular drink all over the world?
——Interview with Wang Yuefei, Vice President of China International Tea Culture Research Association and Director of Zhejiang University Tea Research Institute
Author Qian Chenfei
China is the hometown of tea.
Tea is deeply integrated into Chinese life and has become an important carrier for inheriting Chinese culture.
From the ancient Silk Road, the Ancient Tea Horse Road, and the Ancient Tea Boat Road, to today's Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, tea crosses history and borders, and is deeply loved by people all over the world.
As one of the three major beverages in the world, why can Chinese tea become a popular beverage all over the world?
How to become an important medium for trade and cultural exchanges between the East and the West?
Wang Yuefei, vice president of the China International Tea Culture Research Association and director of the Tea Research Institute of Zhejiang University, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "East and West Questions" to analyze related issues.
The following is a summary of the interview transcript:
China News Service: China is the first country in the world to discover, cultivate and use tea trees. From "chai, rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea" to "qin, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry and wine tea", why do Chinese people love tea?
Wang Yuefei:
Tea, coffee and cocoa are collectively called the three major beverages in the world.
Among them, tea has a history of about 60 million to 70 million years on the earth.
The discovery and utilization of tea began in the primitive matriarchal clan society, which has a history of 5,000 to 6,000 years.
Tea has a long history in China. The earliest recorded legend about tea is that "Shen Nong tasted all kinds of herbs, encountered seventy-two poisons every day, and got tea (tea) to solve it."
The ancestors of the Chinese people experienced four processes of drinking tea: raw medicinal, cooked as a vegetable, cooked and brewed.
Tea contains more than 700 kinds of ingredients, which are beneficial to human health, so it has become a necessities of life for many Chinese.
Especially in Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and other places, the herdsmen lacked fresh fruits and vegetables before, and drinking tea can supplement vitamins to a certain extent, so there is also a saying that "it is better to have no food for three days than no tea for one day".
Tea is "chai, rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea", and also "qin, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry and wine tea". Tea is sought after by many scholars and writers, not only for material needs, but also for spiritual needs.
In the Tang Dynasty, Lu Yu's "The Classic of Tea" came out, known as the "Encyclopedia of Tea".
This comprehensive treatise on the history, origin, current situation, production technology, tea-drinking techniques, and principles of tea ceremony of tea production has become the earliest, most complete, and most comprehensive introduction to tea in China and even in the world, making tea culture develop to an unprecedented height. It also marks the formation of Chinese tea culture.
With the emergence of the commodity economy, people's living conditions have improved, and the people's demand for culture has increased.
Today, tea culture is not only integrated into people's daily life, but also a link of interpersonal communication, which contains the "beauty of civilization" in the East.
Citizens and tourists drink tea at a nearly 40-year-old "Traffic Teahouse" in Chongqing.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhou Yi
China News Service: What role does Chinese tea play in the global tea industry? What's special?
Wang Yuefei:
China has the confidence of tea culture. Chinese tea is a unique resource of famous tea in the world. In tea-producing areas, almost counties and counties have good tea, villages have good tea, and villages have good tea. Tea has become an important economic crop in China. .
More than 30 million tea farmers in 1,085 counties rely on "one leaf" to live a prosperous life, and the tea industry has become a major industry that drives people's livelihood.
Looking at the world, tea is now all over the world's five continents, 64 countries around the world grow tea, 30 countries or regions can export tea stably, more than 150 countries or regions import tea all year round, and more than 160 countries and regions have the habit of drinking tea.
As for what role Chinese tea plays in the global tea industry, it can be summed up in the words "Chinese tea, crowning the world" - "crown" is mainly reflected in the production of tea, the area of tea gardens, the total amount of tea consumption, and the total amount of tea exports. and so on.
Judging from the existing data, in 2020, the world's tea output will be 6.269 million tons, and China's tea output will be 2.986 million tons, ranking first in the world; the world's total tea area is 76.47 million mu, and China's total tea area is 47.475 million mu, also ranking first in the world.
China's tea has a huge impact on the world's tea production and consumption, accounting for 47.63% of the world's tea production, 41.68% of the world's total tea consumption, and 19.14% of the world's tea exports.
Now is the "golden age" of the development of China's tea industry. Nearly half of the world's people (more than 3 billion people) drink tea every day, and the world drinks more than 3 billion cups of tea a day.
Bai villagers in Sangzhi County, Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province pick white tea at the Sangzhi White Tea Ginkgo Pagoda Base in Yunshang Tea Garden.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Yang Huafeng
China News Agency reporter: Why did Chinese tea successfully get out of the circle and go to the world?
Wang Yuefei:
Chinese tea first entered the world in the 5th century AD, and it was introduced to East Asia, South Asia, Central Asia and West Asia mainly through the Silk Road.
Tea can be successfully out of the circle, largely due to its rich medicinal value.
Tea was first used as a medicine in China, called "tea medicine". According to the records of "Shen Nong's Materia Medica", "Treatise on Febrile Diseases", "Ben Cao Supplements", "Tea Classic" and other records, it can be seen that before the Tang Dynasty, people realized that tea has many effects. , not only can make people save sleep, improve eyesight, strength, and happy spirit, but also can lose weight, increase the sharpness of mind, and even be as good as "and nectar".
In the 7th century AD, when Japanese and Korean monks who came to China returned to China, they brought tea trees back to China in the name of "medicinal use" for preventive and health care purposes.
The originator of tea cultivation in Japan, Zen Master Rongxi, said in "Eating Tea and Health Care": "Tea is an elixir of health preservation, and a wonderful technique for prolonging life. It is born in the valley and the spirit of the land. Longevity." In the second year of Jianbao in Japan (1215 A.D.), Rongxi offered February tea to cure the fever of Genshi Dynasty, the general of the Kamakura shogunate. Since then, the Japanese tea style has become more popular.
From the 15th century to the 17th century in the era of great navigation, the distance between countries in the world was unprecedentedly reduced, and the magical medicinal properties of tea were further spread. The Dutch East India Company, with its maritime advantages, shipped green tea from Macau to Java, Indonesia, and then transshipped to Europe. European style of tea drinking.
The United Kingdom is one of the most popular countries in Europe to drink tea. Driven by the royal family, tea drinking has become a fashion pursued by nobles and has become popular among all classes in the United Kingdom.
They found that tea is very effective for refreshing, relieving fatigue, hangover, and helping digestion, and there are no side effects when drinking it for a long time.
The tea trade between China and Britain started from scratch and gradually developed in the 17th and early 18th centuries, and the considerable profits made the tea trade more active.
Visitors taste tea at the 2020 China (Guangzhou) International Tea Expo and the 21st Guangzhou International Tea Culture Festival.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Chen Chuhong
As the most developed country in the world at the time, Britain led the wave in Europe.
Since the end of the 17th century, Chinese tea has gradually become popular all over the world.
At that time, China's tea exports had surpassed those of porcelain and silk, accounting for about 90 percent of the country's exports.
Research on tea and health resurfaced in the 1980s.
Under the call of "back to nature", many researchers began to seek alternatives to synthetic drugs from plants.
Japanese scientist Fujiki M first reported in 1987 that tea polyphenols can inhibit the activity of human cancer cells, which attracted worldwide attention.
In 2002, the United States "Time" magazine recommended the top ten healthy foods, including green tea.
Relevant research has driven the growth of global tea consumption, and has also allowed Chinese tea to cross history and borders and win the world's love.
China News Agency reporter: Behind the "one leaf", what are the similarities and differences between Eastern and Western tea drinking habits? What are the reflections of the integration and mutual learning between the East and the West?
Wang Yuefei:
China is known as the motherland of tea and the birthplace of tea culture.
The higher the degree of integration of Eastern and Western cultures, the more functions Chinese tea is endowed with.
From becoming a luxury drink in the upper class when it first went to sea, to popularizing in Western society through the "afternoon tea" culture, to now integrating with milk and alcohol, the collision of cultures has made Chinese tea famous overseas.
There are many differences between the East and the West when it comes to drinking tea.
There are six major types of Chinese tea: green tea, yellow tea, dark tea, white tea, green tea, and black tea. Chinese people pay attention to "quality" when drinking tea, which requires complete color, fragrance, and cultural connotation, utensils and artistic conception.
The western way of drinking tea is relatively simple, focusing on efficiency and convenience, preferring tea bags and broken tea.
The audience was attracted by the March Peach Blossom Cup, the "Twelve Flower God Cup" made by Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty.
Photo by China News Agency reporter Zhang Wei
When tea is circulated as a commodity, it also promotes the integration of multiculturalism.
Chinese tea culture has become the cradle of tea culture in various countries, promoting the formation of tea culture in Britain, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Morocco and other countries.
Taking China and Japan as an example, the two countries have frequent exchanges in history, and Chinese tea culture has formed a unique tea ceremony system, genre and etiquette in Japan.
The Tang Dynasty, Song Dynasty and the end of Ming Dynasty were important historical periods when Chinese tea culture spread to Japan.
For example, in the Southern Song Dynasty, "ordering tea" was introduced to Japan, forming the "Matcha Dao".
At that time, the literati in the Southern Song Dynasty crushed the tea cake, poured water into the paste, and then poured boiling water into the tea soup with a tea whisk to quickly whip the tea soup to form fine foam.
With the increasing frequency of foreign exchanges in the Southern Song Dynasty, "Dancha" was introduced to Japan, where it was retained, inherited and carried forward.
"Matcha Ceremony" has now become the national quintessence of Japan, and it is regarded as the gift of state guests and is known as the best in Japan.
Tea and the world are shared.
It is a good trend that the United Nations announced that May 21 every year as the "International Tea Day", which can promote the sustainable and healthy development of the global tea industry, deepen the integration and mutual learning of tea cultures, and let more people know about tea, love tea, and enjoy tea together. Fragrant tea rhyme, share a good life.
Tea originated in China and is popular all over the world.
The vastness, abundance and tolerance of tea have made it a way of communicating with the world since ancient times.
In contemporary times, it is still of great significance to use "tea" as a bridge to promote exchanges and mutual learning between Eastern and Western civilizations.
(Finish)
Interviewee Profile:
Wang Yuefei, vice president of China International Tea Culture Research Association and director of Zhejiang University Tea Research Institute.
Photo courtesy of the interviewee issued by China News Agency
Wang Yuefei, doctor of tea science, professor, doctoral tutor, national first-class tea critic, member of the Disciplinary Evaluation Group of the State Council, leader of the tea science discipline of Zhejiang University, director of the Tea Research Institute of Zhejiang University, and Meitan Tea Research Institute of Zhejiang University Chairman, Vice Chairman of China International Tea Culture Research Association, Chairman of Zhejiang Tea Society.