Zhou Guangjun, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and vice president of Yibin University, delivers his address.
On November 26, the 2022 Sichuan Province College Students Tea Art Skills Competition, themed “Inheriting Sichuan Tea Culture, Innovating the Art of Tasting,” was grandly held at the Lingang Campus of Yibin University. Hosted by the Sichuan Provincial Department of Education and organized by Yibin University, the opening ceremony was attended by 26 judges from well-known universities and the industry nationwide, along with Zhou Guangjun; Zhu Wenyou, deputy director of the Academic Affairs Office (presiding over its work); Li Yan, section chief of practical teaching; and division-level cadres of the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Engineering.
China Cooperation Times · Tea Weekly all-media reporters learned that 21 tea art teams from 9 universities in Sichuan took part, with the competition conducted through a combination of online livestreaming and offline presentation. After fierce contest, the competition awarded 3 first prizes, 5 second prizes and 7 third prizes. By the close of the works presentation and judging, online viewing had exceeded 1.2 million.
Zhou Guangjun delivered the welcome address, congratulating the association’s faculty and students on the successful holding of the competition and expressing heartfelt thanks to the judges, experts, teachers and students from across the country for their support. He introduced that the Sichuan Tea College of Yibin University, as one of the province’s first modern industry colleges and a Sichuan tea talent training base, shoulders the important mission of cultivating talent to serve the refined Sichuan tea industry. Centering on Sichuan’s goal of a “hundred-billion tea industry, strong tea province” and the cultivation of refined Sichuan tea, the college vigorously carries out tea talent training, scientific research, social service and cultural inheritance. He said the college would continue to build the tea discipline strongly, striving to make the Sichuan Tea College a “province-leading, nationally first-class” industry college and a national model of industry-academia-research-application integration, providing strong talent and technology support for high-quality development of the tea industry.
Professor Wang Yuefei, chief judge of the competition, delivers his address online.
Wang Yuefei, chief judge of the competition, vice president of the China International Tea Culture Research Association and director of the Tea Research Institute of Zhejiang University, delivered an address online on behalf of all judges, extending the warmest congratulations to this college tea art skills competition! He highly praised the “Speaking of Sichuan Tea” segment for its strong local character, which helps promote Sichuan’s regional brands of “Mengding Mountain Tea,” “Micang Mountain Tea,” “Emei Mountain Tea” and “Yibin Early Spring Tea.” He affirmed that the internet-livestream format expands the influence of Sichuan tea culture and helps Sichuan tea go beyond the province’s borders, and that it truly embodies the important directive of coordinating the development of “tea culture, tea industry, and tea science and technology.”
After the opening ceremony, the organizing committee presented and judged all entries. Each entry comprised three parts: “Speaking of Sichuan Tea,” “Theme Introduction,” and “Innovative Tea Art.” The entries were rich and colorful in subject. Some expressed feeling through tea: “A Bowl of Tea Soup Reveals Human Warmth” conveyed a tea-leaf heart resisting the pandemic—a bowl of tea soup shows human kindness, and a cup of black tea can bring the warmest comfort to anti-epidemic workers. Some conveyed history through tea: “The Tea Horse Road,” with reverence for history, revisited the spirit of our forebears through this “tea of life” and gave thanks for the brightness opened by the “Belt and Road.” Some poured out feeling through tea: “The East · Red” showed that the East’s youth, like the eastern sunrise, shine most brilliantly in life only after repeated tempering. Others portrayed tea art youth writing their youth in colors with tea as their pen and shouldering responsibility for home and country through the Way: “Studying Civil and Martial Arts, Uplifting Family and Nation.” Some sought the heart through tea: “Breaking Through Internal Friction, Seeking the Heart in Tea” expressed that in this age of selling anxiety and involution, tea is reborn through water—may you be like tea, and settle yourself. Some illuminated customs through tea: “Yi Fire, Tea Feeling,” from the homeland of Yi tea, expressed welcoming guests with tea in place of wine. And “Yi Tea, Yi Feeling” burst with boundless passion and vitality, expressing the boldness of the Yi people and their love of life.
Entry: “A Bowl of Tea Soup Reveals Human Warmth”
Entry: “The Tea Horse Road”
Entry: “The East · Red”
Entry: “Studying Civil and Martial Arts, Uplifting Family and Nation”
Entry: “Breaking Through Internal Friction, Seeking the Heart in Tea”
Entry: “Yi Fire, Tea Feeling”
Entry: “Yi Tea, Yi Feeling”
After the competition, judge representatives Wang Yuefei; Zhu Haiyan, professor at the College of Horticulture of Hunan Agricultural University; and Zhang Jing, lifetime honorary president of the Sichuan Tea Culture Association, commented on the entries online. Professor Zhu Haiyan noted that most contestants could clearly and systematically describe the origin, culture and quality characteristics of their chosen teas, and had carefully prepared their works—well-chosen settings, high-quality filming, and good conception. She offered two suggestions: first, if the “Speaking of Sichuan Tea” segment were combined with the “Tianfu Longya” regional public brand built by the Sichuan provincial government, it would promote Sichuan tea even better; second, to align with the national competition by further refining the theme and content of entries and elevating the aesthetics of the tea setting. Zhang Jing noted that Sichuan tea culture and history could be dug into more deeply, better integrated with tea products, to enrich brand substance and support the industry’s development.
In his comments, Wang Yuefei said the contestants had prepared with devotion and presented programs delightful to eye and mind, demonstrating superb tea artistry; the entries abounded in creativity, letting people feel a tea homeland rich in regional culture with a long tea heritage, and a Sichuan keeping pace with the times with a booming tea industry. He hoped that through this competition the contestants would gain further insight and progress in technique and in grace and beauty; and that in tea-setting design they would enrich their forms of expression and not confine themselves to basic color matching and design methods. He looked forward to their continued efforts and to still more splendid performances and transformations in the future.
Huang Tong, deputy secretary of the Party general branch of the Faculty of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Engineering of Yibin University, gives an interview.
After the competition, Huang Tong told reporters that Yibin University attaches great importance to the dissemination and inheritance of tea culture. Holding the competition not only raises students’ overall comprehensive quality and displays the demeanor of college students in the new era; through this platform the university can also strengthen communication and learning with other universities and promote Sichuan tea artistry and culture. In the future, Yibin University will continue to leverage its talent, technology and professional strengths to hold more such activities and contribute to the development of the Sichuan tea industry.
Produced by: China Cooperation Times · Tea Weekly All Media
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Author: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
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