Writer project #1

Chinese Tea
In Chinese culture, tea is one of the 7 necessities of living: firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and
tea. Tea was discovered about five thousand years ago in China. It was talked about as the default
beverage for everyday Chinese life in poems from Tang Dynasty one thousand three hundred years ago.
According to Wikipedia, there are 5 major types of Chinese tea: White, Green, Oolong, Black, and postfermented. My family drinks green tea. To make green tea, you boil water first, let it cool a bit, to about 85C
to be precise, then pour the water into cup or pot contained tealeaves. You wait for the tealeaves to unfold
and the liquid color to turn to green or amber. There are too many different kinds of teacups to count; the
best among them in my opinion is the purple clad teapots shown in the picture below on the left. My parents
have some of this type teapot saved on the top level of their bookshelf.

My first encounter with tea is when I was chosen with about a dozen kindergartener girls to perform a "TeaPicking Girl" dance at a school event. We practiced beautiful and delicate hand and body movements along
the music. We dressed up in flowery shirt and wore makeup for the performance. There were various
excitements leading up to the performance and we got lots of applauses.
My second encounter was an actual "tea-picking" activity organized by school couple of years later. We went
to a tea farm, similar to the one shown in the picture on the right above. We each were given nice looking
small bamboo basket and had a grownup girl taught us how to pick tealeaves. The key to tea's quality
according to her was to pick only the new growth contained two leaves. If your picking contained 3-leaf
head, which was older than the 2-leaf head, the older leaves would bring in a bitter flavor to the final tea
product. The reason there were tea-picking girl is that we girls have smaller hands, which is critical to tealeaf
picking quality. I was really proud that I am so special for this task and prepared to include some of my
dance movements while picking. My daydreaming was crashed quickly when I started actual tealeaf picking.
First, one had to look for these 2-leaf heads before picking and the dance rhythm can't be followed. Second,
the leaf head was so tiny and light. There was hardly anything to show in my little basket after I had finished
several large tea brushes. At the beginning of the day, the morning sun was really nice and the tealeaves
had shining little dewdrops on them. But these little sight pleasures disappeared quickly when the sun
moved up and soon one started to feel the heat from the sun. I was really happy when teacher pulled us out
because the tealeaves were not fit for picking at certain time of the day. My romantic feeling about tealeaf
picking was dampened after that extracurricular activity, but my love for tea flourished when I got older.
To me, tea represents a life style, not a mere beverage. Tea does not give you the quick boost of mental
clarity coffee provides in the morning. On the other hand, it also doesnt give you the withdrawn-type
headache when coffee happens to be not available at the moment. Tea provides the soothing comfort when
you need to unwind your mind, to reflect, to pause for a moment before reengage. You are likely to be more
conservative on your behavior and your action. You avoid flamboyance. Your goal is to find most efficient
way to achieve your long-term goal in life, not to make short term gain. Tea also does not give the disguise
alcoholic beverage provides when you need to make difficult negotiation or decision. You have to rely100%
on your own mental function to deal with whatever you are facing and be prepared to deal with the
consequence. It requires you to be more vigilant in your action.
This brings me to ZhongYong, one of Four Books of Confucian philosophy. Zhong means yield neither one
way or another and Yong represents unchanging. Zhongyong teaches one to recognize the innate humanity
in oneself, be true to the people and the world around you, and to follow the natural progression of the event

to strive for harmony. In my mind, Chinese tea is a material representation of Confucian philosophy: nonexcess, be true to yourself through reflection, and strive for harmony in oneself and with society. I did not
learn Zhongyong at school because we focused on Science and Engineering subjects. But the teachings
were embedded in everyday lives in China. I remembered my mothers certitude on the importance of
wearing clean cloth not fancy ones and never to have outburst of emotions: the guiding principle that one
should never act in excess; I was particularly interested in the statements regarding learning in Zhongyong.
One of them says: some people are born with knowledge; others learn to gain knowledge; still more acquire
knowledge when they run into problem. As long as knowledge is acquired, all three means are equal.
Another one says: Other succeeds in one try, I will try hundred times; other succeeds in ten tries, I will try
one thousand times. If you put in such effort, even unintelligent can surely be wise, even soft can surely be
strong. These words were such comfort to me in those trying high school days. I still remembered what my
father told me about one of his learning story: during his school years, there was a particular difficult book.
The book became thicker and thicker as he was reading on, questions pup up here and there all the time,
and these questions distracted him so he had to check out other books to answer them. But additional books
brought even more questions; it all became very confusing and discouraging. But then, the second time he
went through the book, it became a little bit thinner, and gradually a little thinner still, and then all of a
sudden, everything clicked and he knew what the book was about, and eventually he thrown the book away
because the knowledge in the book became his own.
People from all over the world came to United States bring with them their own culture and ways of living.
America is called big melting pot that mixes and combines all. Zhongyong teaches me to stick to my core
believes and do not deviate with ever changing circumstances. I am to work hard to separate the natural
needs from excessive craving for instant gravitation. I am to improve myself through continuous learning to
achieve harmony with the society I am living in. And I am to keep drinking my tea, reflect on what is true and
just, and try not to disappear into the herd.
As I mentioned before, there are other kind of Chinese teas. I tried them but they didnt stick. A strange one I
tried is Pu-erh tea from Yunnan province. It comes as teacake, very different from the loose tealeaves that
green tea comes in. Pu-erh teas taste suppose to peak after the teacake is aged for 10-15 years. There
was a rumor that Pu-erh teacakes were completely out off stock at one time in China because people were
buying it as a commodity for investment purpose. So you see, my philosophical symbol only lives with me in
my mind. But I am sure the thousand years old Confucian philosophical guidance will continue helping
Chinese in their everyday life with things large and small and helping them achieve harmony with the society
wherever they choice to live.