A journey to experience and discover Chinese tea cultureand historywas arranged on April 18 for the members of Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and Overseas Chinese Student Elite Programby International School.

The activity was conducted in College of Chinese Language and Culture, Jinan University. On entering the Room of Tea Art, we heard a kind of ethereal music and smelled the air scented with tea leaves. “The clean music you hear is made by Yu Qing.” pointing the round brown stuff on the table, Ms. Liu Xiaoxiao gave a brief introduction of this rarely-seen musical instrument, and invited the studentsto percuss Yu Qing to feel its different tone and pitch.

Right after this round, the students learned the six main types of tea under Ms. Liu’s interpretation – green, yellow, white, oolong, black and dark tea. They are classified according to the fermentation degree of tea leaves which makes the expiration date, tea color, fragrance and taste different. With this knowledge in mind, the students cooperated to tell the category of the tea leaves put in six small plates by observing their features.

“Lighting incense, hanging Chinese paintings, arranging flowers and tasting tea are called the Si Ya(four elegant behaviors) of gentlemen in Song Dynasty.” said Ms. Wang Fei, the performer of tea art. Shemake the students well understand via her elegant demonstration of the real procedure of making tea. Ms. Wang prepared three types of tea for the students to taste and askthem differentiate the category.

In the last section, the students were encouraged to design the tea tables as they like, using every material available in the room. Immediately three groups of students tried their best to turn the artistic gifts to good account by picture composition, color matching, etc. The whole process witnessed the students’ talent of innovation and their basic understanding of traditional Chinese tea culture.

Although Chinese tea culture is far beyond this short experiencing journey, every member in in the programhad a wonderful start to explore traditional Chinese culture. We believe that as a student in Jinan University, they can bear in mind that they have the honorable task to spread the outstanding traditional Chinese culture worldwide.

Article | Yuyan He

Photos | Qiaosi Ye Jiayi Chen

Design | Yuchen Liang