Art as everyday practice: A study of gongfu tea in Chaoshan, China

Abstract

This study explores the place of traditional Chinese tea culture in a society undergoing changes both culturally, with the rise of consumerism, and structurally, with the growth of a market economy and globalization. It does so by examining tea drinking in the Chaoshan region of eastern Guangdong Province. Chaoshan is the home of a style of preparing and drinking tea known as 'gongfu' tea, involving preparation of strong tea in small pots, and drinking repeated brews in small cups. As well as being an important part of the regional food and drink culture, gongfu tea has been adopted outside Chaoshan as a refined form of tea culture, and even represented outside China as an authentic 'Chinese tea ceremony'. It therefore provides an appropriate case study through which to examine both local practices and the processes through which local cultural objects are appropriated and transformed for use in other contexts. The study pursues two lines of inquiry. The first examines the development of a contemporary discourse representing Chaoshan gongfu tea as a manifestation of a continuous tradition dating back more than 1,000 years to the Tang Dynasty. I argue that, while tea has long been consumed in Chaoshan, this representation is not supported by historical evidence, and is an example of an invented tradition. The second line of inquiry is a study of contemporary gongfu tea-drinking practices, both among people born in Chaoshan, and among non-Chaoshan people who have taken it up as an acquired practice. Methodologically, the study uses sociological ethnography, in which the ‘field’ of research is not a specific locality but a field of inquiry defined by pursuing linkages relevant to the research questions. Findings are based on fieldwork involving semi-structured interviews with, and observations among, a snowball sample of 32 individuals plus one family that was treated, for analytical purposes, as a single unit. Fieldwork was conducted in four visits to the region between 2010 and 2017. The study found that, among people born in Chaoshan, gongfu tea is experienced as an integral part of everyday life, rather than a form of tea art. As a practice, it entails close attention to detail in preparing, serving and drinking tea, on the one hand and, on the other, a high level of creativity, rather than slavish adherence to a prescriptive model. People who have taken up gongfu tea as an acquired practice exhibit similar skills, but for them, gongfu tea is unlikely to be woven into the fabric of everyday life. Some people choose to cultivate additional knowledge and skills in order to enhance their gongfu tea practice as tea art. The study concludes by considering the relationship between Chaoshan gongfu tea as a cultural object created through discourse, and contemporary tea-drinking practices. I argue that the relationship is not as close as literary accounts imply. While each is informed by the other, neither is a mirror of the other, and each is a product of distinctive social processes: the discourse, by the activities of academics, entrepreneurs and others, each pursuing their own interests; tea-drinking practices, by the opportunities and constraints generated through economic and social processes emanating from the wider society.