China's traditional tea-making was added on Tuesday to the intangible cultural heritage list of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).[1]
The item "Traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China" passed the examination at the 17th session of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage ongoing in the Moroccan capital.
China now has 43 items on the list of intangible cultural heritage, making it the most enlisted country in the world. Traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China include knowledge, skills, and procedures related to plantation management, picking tea leaves, manual processing, drinking, and sharing tea.
Traditional tea-making techniques are primarily concentrated in China's four tea regions. However, associated social practices are widespread across the country and shared by diverse ethnic groups.
Tea is served steeped or boiled in families, workplaces, tea houses, restaurants, and temples, to name a few places where it is consumed. It's also a big part of socialization and ceremonies like weddings and sacrifices.
Through the Silk Road, the ancient tea horse road, the Wanli tea road, etc., tea through history, across national boundaries, loved by people around the world, has become an essential medium for China and the people of the world to get to know each other, Chinese civilization and other civilizations around the world to exchange and learn from each other and become the commonwealth of human culture.
SaintNoon will take you to know a few representative tea arts in the provinces.
Zhejiang
Zhejiang is a crucial province in China's green tea production. Six national non-patrimonial items are an essential part of it this time: West Lake Longjing, Wuzhou Juyan, Purple Bamboo Shoots Tea and Anji White Tea Production Technique, as well as two folklore activities, Temple Fair (Catch Tea Field) and Jingshan Tea Banquet.
Fujian
Fujian has six projects in which, respectively: Wuyi Mountain Rock Tea Production Technique, Iron Guanyin Production Technique, Fuding White Tea Production Technique, Fuzhou Jasmine Tea Cellar Craft, Tanyang Gongfu Tea Production Technique, Zhangping Shui Xian Tea Production Technique.
Fujian Province and tea-related provincial non-heritage representative project 29 have identified 48 traditional tea-making skills classes and local non-heritage representative inheritors.
Jiangsu
There are three projects in Jiangsu, namely, "Yuhua Tea Making Technique" in Nanjing, "Biluochun Making Technique" in Suzhou and "Fuchun Tea Making Technique" in Yangzhou.
It is worth mentioning that the "Kui Long Zhu," one of the techniques of making Fuchun tea, originates from Yangzhou Fuchun Tea House, which started in 1921 and has a history of 100 years. This tea is made from Anhui Kui needle, Zhejiang Longjing, and Fuchun home-grown pearl orchid to maintenance hole, taking the first three words of Kui needle, Longjing, and pearl orchid together as "Kui Longzhu" because the three kinds of tea are from Anhui, Zhejiang, Suzhou, so there is "a pot of water to cook the tea of three provinces" said.
Hunan
There are three projects in Hunan: black tea production techniques in the production of thousand tea, Fu brick tea production techniques, and yellow tea production techniques in the production of Junshan silver needle tea production techniques.
Anhui
Anhui has three projects in it, respectively: Huangshan Mao Feng, Taiping Monkey Kui and Qimen Black Tea Production Technique in Huangshan City.
[1] https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/11/1131212