Bringing centuries-old tea experience to modern Taipei

Tang Wen-jing is offering attendees a fascinating way to unwind on the sidelines of the Taipei Int'l Tea Culture Expo, held from Friday to Monday: a workshop designed to steep them in the tea drinking culture of yesteryear.

"I would like to show participants how to make and drink tea like people of the Tang Dynasty," Tang told Xinhua, describing her workshop, called "Teatime in Tang Dynasty (618-907)," as a unique opportunity to experience the origins of tea drinking.

Tang recreated the whole tea-making and drinking ritual, each step strictly following what was recorded in the book "The Classic of Tea" by Tang scholar Lu Yu in the eighth century. The book is the first treatise in China to compile knowledge of tea and its related practices.

Several participants were invited on the stage to bake and grind tea leaves, boil water and serve tea, using replicas of Tang-era tea paraphernalia, ranging from stoves to tea cups.

Participants were also treated to images of the earliest and highest-ranking Tang imperial tea set, unearthed in the Famen Temple in northwest China's Shaanxi Province in 1987.

"It may be a more accessible way for today's people to learn about what was written in 'The Classic of Tea' by taking part in the ritual personally," she said.

The way modern Chinese, including people of Taiwan, drink tea is dramatically different from the habits of the Tang people. Instead of boiling ground tea leaves in a large iron or pottery pot, people today pour boiled water onto tea leaves in a hand-size teapot.

"The word 'Tang' made me curious," said a lady surnamed Zhou, who had traveled from Taoyuan City to Taipei for the event. Although Zhou, who is in her early twenties, does not drink tea, she was intrigued to know how Chinese made tea some 1,200 years ago.

"The event was very interesting. I think I will try to make myself a good cup of tea," she said.

"I have seen how the ancients took tea in some mainland-produced period dramas but once I tried it myself, I found it to be more complicated and delicate than I had imagined," said a participant surnamed Sun, who joined Tang on the stage.

In a trip to Qingdao City of east China's Shandong Province, Sun was surprised to find that teenagers there were taught how to make and serve tea traditionally.

"Taiwan also has a fine tradition of Chinese tea drinking and produces excellent tea. I hope we can also pass on this cultural legacy to our children," she said.