The tea ceremony

Photo: Xiaomei Wang leading a tea ceremony at Stirling university, part of the Reflections of the East exhibition.
 
If you ever host a Chinese visitor I can guarantee that among the gifts he or she will bring will be tea.
 
In my kitchen cupboard is an array of tea boxes, gifts over the years from Chinese visitors.
 
Tea has major cultural importance in China going back more than 5,000 years.
 
 It is more than just a refreshing drink. And the “Tea drinking ceremony “ is as much about strengthening social networks as it is in persevering tradition and has strong connections to spirituality, art, poetry and music.
 
Xiaomei Wang explained that in the last ten years as the Chinese economy has grown, the Chinese tea industry has also grown and interest in the many different types of tea has boomed as a popular interest for many Chinese.


Afterwards we all got to sample some, and it’s a far cry from British “builders tea”.