A Fragrance of Tea Leads Both Sides of the Taiwan Strait—Taiwanese Tea Maker Zuo Ruyu’s Travels in Mainland China

　　China News Agency, Beijing, December 4th, title: A ray of tea fragrance leads to both sides of the Taiwan Strait—Taiwanese tea maker Zuo Ruyu’s trip to the mainland

　　China News Agency reporter Lu Mei

　　"Tea culture is an indispensable essence of Chinese culture. Today's tea-making skills have a thousand-year-old heritage and continuous exploration and innovation." said Taiwanese tea maker Zuo Ruyu. , the love for tea resonates with people on both sides of the strait and gets close to each other.

　　"Traditional Chinese tea-making techniques and related customs" have recently been included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

At that time, Zuo Ruyu had just scented a batch of tea leaves with chrysanthemum in the organic tea garden in Taichung, and was thinking about "a batch of winter slices will be harvested in a few days, what kind of tea should I make?" She was very happy at the other end, and said to the reporter of China News Agency: "Tea culture has a long history and is the common wealth of mankind. We are proud of it and should pass it on with care."

　　Zuo Ruyu was born in a tea-making family in Miaoli County, Taiwan. Four generations of her family have made Oriental Beauty Tea. She has continued to innovate in the process of inheriting tea-making skills. The production techniques of the big tea series are well integrated, and more than 100 kinds of tea products have been created in more than 20 years.

　　More than 200 years ago, residents of Fujian and Guangdong who immigrated to Taiwan from the mainland brought tea tree seeds, tea-making skills and tea-drinking customs to Taiwan. Taiwan's oolong tea, Baozhong tea and other production technologies all came from Fujian.

In the late Qing Dynasty, the production and export of tea became an important driving force for the economic development of northern Taiwan.

　　Today, Taiwan's Dongding Oolong Tea, Wenshan Baozhong Tea, and Oriental Beauty Tea have become well-known teas on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and more and more Taiwanese tea professionals have come to the mainland to develop.

Zuo Ruyu belongs to the "technical flow" among them. She is obsessed with "dialogue" with tea, constantly seeking breakthroughs in tea-making technology, and then imparting them to tea farmers for free, "Where there is good tea, I will go there. Go to all the tea districts".

　　Every time he goes to the mainland, Zuo Ruyu always digs into the depths of the tea mountains to inspect the local environment and tea-making technology. I was in a hurry to raise the price." In this way, in the past six or seven years, Zuo Ruyu helped Wudong in Chaozhou, Guangdong to improve the quality of black tea and innovate white tea, using Zhangping Narcissus tea to make a cake with two colors and Taiwan mountains. Narcissus White Tea with Oolong Flavor.

Even though the cost of traveling between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait was extremely high due to the new crown epidemic, she still insisted on rushing to the tea area during the tea picking season.

"Tea farmers and tea are waiting for me, I can't stop!" she said.

　　In recent years, Zuo Ruyu has spent more time in mainland tea regions than in Taiwan.

In order to let the tea-making skills play a better role, in January last year, she accepted 8 apprentices in Fuzhou, including young people from mainland China and Taiwan. Level non-heritage inheritor.

"Next spring, I plan to go to Taining, Fujian, where I will build a tea garden base and form a production chain from planting to tea making, so that Taiwanese youth who are interested in tea making can take root and develop with peace of mind."

　　"In the field of tea, cross-strait integration has been going on, and it can even be said that there is no distinction between each other." Zuo Ruyu said, "No matter where people are, drinking a sip of tea makes them feel close to each other. Tea not only makes people on both sides of the strait feel connected, but also It has shortened the distance between Chinese and foreign friends, and even eliminated the estrangement. This is a very important contribution to the world."

　　Zuo Ruyu's research plan also includes Tanyang Gongfu tea from Fujian.

At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Tanyang Gongfu tea was a well-known tea in the world.

This time, the production technique of the tea is also among the projects that have successfully applied for world heritage.

"But now its status is far from what it was then, and many people have never even heard of it. I hope to improve it through my technology and bring it back to life."

　　"As the sons and daughters of China, it is the most important mission of our tea people to inherit the tea culture passed down from our ancestors." Zuo Ruyu said, "I hope that tea people on both sides of the strait can work together to spread Chinese culture to the world." ( Finish)