Tea pickers plucking leaves in a tea garden on Wuyi Mountain, Fujian.
On the evening of November 29, good news arrived from Rabat, Morocco: “Traditional Chinese Tea-Making Techniques and Related Customs” passed review at the 17th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Study the list of nominated elements and you will find it is effectively a “team award” representing Chinese tea, composed of 44 projects in two categories\u2014tea-making techniques and tea customs\u2014drawn from 15 provinces, regions and municipalities nationwide, covering all six great tea categories of green, dark, black, oolong, white and yellow tea plus the reprocessed jasmine scented tea: the full spectrum, fielding its finest. In all the world there is nothing to match it; its place on the list is richly deserved\u2014congratulations are in order!
This is the world’s recognition of the craft and culture of “Chinese tea,” a tribute paid worldwide to Chinese tea’s historical standing and continuing development. How Chinese tea makes the best use of this inscription will surely demand the serious attention, careful study and solid work of the entire industry.
As a professional media outlet serving the industry for 20 years, China Cooperation Times \u00b7 Tea Weekly all media believes the work must be done in three areas\u2014”cultural empowerment,” “industry elevation” and “industry leadership”\u2014to fully realize the benefits of Chinese tea’s successful World Heritage nomination.
“Cultural empowerment” is the first task, based on the character and strengths of world intangible heritage. What this list champions is the safeguarding and transmission of humanity’s intangible culture. Chinese tea-making techniques and tea customs are the technical essence and humanistic pulse of Chinese tea culture, and this successful inscription can vastly improve the environment and level of awareness surrounding them. From daily practice unnoticed to the awakening and excavation of value; from treasuring a worn broom to celebrating it far and wide\u2014this is unquestionably a higher starting point for tea people’s confidence and for cultivating national cultural confidence.
For the 44 projects that took part and share in the honor, their inheritors’ pride and sense of glory will never be the same, and the project categories and tea-region enterprises will take on greater responsibility and stronger momentum for development:
Outwardly, they can use the world heritage platform to spread Chinese tea farther and wider, forming synergy with “International Tea Day” and the China-EU mutual recognition of geographical indication marks\u2014marketing backed by culture, and marketing that in turn drives cultural dissemination.
Inwardly, they can use the world heritage philosophy and safeguarding rules to bring these 44 projects fully in line with international markets and lift the industry’s deficient international vision, providing an important reference and stage for cultural exchange and mutual learning between Chinese tea and the world.
“Industry elevation” is the judgment and expectation based on the current state and needs of the Chinese tea industry.
First, as world cultural heritage, and by past experience, all 44 projects\u2014in cultural narrative, public communication, professional expression, hardware standards, and inheritance development\u2014will see new elevation against world heritage requirements.
Second, this successful nomination coincides exactly with the moment when the tea industry’s integration of primary, secondary and tertiary sectors, and the integrated development of tea, culture and tourism, move from accumulation to eruption. Against the backdrop of rural and industry revitalization, it will surely bring brand-new culture-tourism opportunities to the related projects in these 15 provinces, regions and municipalities, presenting them in a new cultural image.
Finally, we believe this successful nomination will open new channels and space for tea-region enterprises of the 44 projects to engage with international markets. As exchanges expand and deepen, international standards, demands and rules will be an excellent opportunity for traditional tea enterprises to learn and improve.
The 44 projects that won this team nomination are certainly the essence and the representatives of Chinese tea-making techniques and tea customs\u2014but they are certainly not the whole of Chinese tea. This seemingly “contradictory” situation holds within it a vibrant future:
On one side, it will spur the inheritors and tea-region enterprises of these 44 projects to press on, guard their honor, dig into their substance, and promote their culture.
On the other, those “lagging” Chinese tea-making techniques and tea customs will surely refuse to be left behind and will gather strength, benchmarking against the heritage standards and solidly organizing, protecting, transmitting and developing their own techniques and customs.
However they pursue World Heritage nomination in the future, this will be a process of learning, elevation and innovation\u2014and surely more Chinese tea-making techniques and customs, with their unique cultural value and forms of transmission, will become new members of the world heritage family. Seen this way, Chinese tea’s successful nomination has brought the industry rich inspiration and beneficial momentum. More splendor awaits!
The “team award” representing Chinese tea, formed by 44 projects. Table by Liang Yan
Produced by: China Cooperation Times · Tea Weekly All Media<\/p>\n
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\nAuthor: Lam Sam (LamSam), the Old Tea Head
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Tea pickers plucking leaves in a tea garden on Wuyi Mountain, Fujian.On the evening of November 29, good news arrived from Rabat, Morocco: “Traditional Chinese Tea-Making Techniques and Related Customs” passed review at the 17th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and was inscribed on the UNESCO […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-yun-tea-mountains-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13720"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13721,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13720\/revisions\/13721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zentea-shop.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}