On the afternoon of December 18, the “Chinese Traditional Tea-making Skills and Related Customs” Protection Summit Forum, which was selected as one of the main venues for the promotion and display of human intangible cultural heritage, was held in Hangzhou.
Chen Guangsheng, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group of Zhejiang Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism, delivered a keynote speech. A collated version of the keynote speech is now published.
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Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen,
Good afternoon, everyone!
“Tea people are hospitable from all directions, and the breeze comes naturally. “On the occasion of the inscription of traditional Chinese tea-making techniques and related customs on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, many virtuous and elegant people meet on the shores of West Lake to use tea as a medium and discuss the Tao with tea, which can be described as a grand event in the tea industry. On behalf of the Department of Culture and Tourism of Zhejiang Province, I would like to take this opportunity to extend a warm welcome to all the guests attending this event, and express my heartfelt thanks to the leading comrades of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the colleagues of the provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) who have worked together to give great guidance to this inscription, and the friends at home and abroad who have helped each other.
This tea application activity was carried out under the personal care and promotion of General Secretary Xi Jinping. Recently, the general secretary has issued important instructions and set forth ardent expectations. We should follow the important instructions of the general secretary, earnestly strengthen the systematic protection of intangible cultural heritage, promote the creative transformation and innovative development of China’s excellent traditional culture, deepen exchanges and mutual learning among civilizations, and do a good job in the second half of the tea application for World Heritage in a down-to-earth manner, so that the small “Oriental Divine Leaf” will further become a dazzling pearl to carry forward the excellent traditional Chinese culture, and make greater contributions to promoting high-quality development and promoting the spirit of material prosperity of the whole people. I would like to take this opportunity to share some personal understanding and ask for your criticism and correction.
- Focus on continuing the tea culture and enhancing cultural self-confidence and self-improvement
- China is the homeland of tea and the source of the spread of tea culture in the world. The 5,000-year-old history of Chinese civilization is filled with the fragrance of tea in almost every frame. According to the “Book of Tea”, it is recorded: “Tea is drinking, originating from Shennong’s family, and smelling in Lu Zhougong.” Later generations added another sentence: Flourished in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. Tea is a treasure of traditional Chinese culture. From planting tea, picking tea to making tea and drinking tea, from making tea and saluting tea to fighting tea and evaluating tea, the broad and profound tea skills and customs have long penetrated into the blood of the Chinese nation and have become a collective memory that has lasted for thousands of years.
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Zhejiang is an important birthplace of Chinese tea culture, in the 6000-year-old Yuyao Tianluo Mountain site found the remains of tea roots, known as the “tea saint” of the Tang Dynasty Lu Yu wrote the “Book of Tea” in Huzhou, Changxing’s Congshan is located in the first royal tea factory – Tang Gong Tea Garden, the Jingshan tea banquet in Hangzhou in the Song Dynasty has become the source of the tea ceremony to the east. Among the 44 intangible cultural heritage projects of tea humanity, Zhejiang has 4 tea skills and 2 tea customs sub-items, covering all the representative forms of the Jiangnan tea area. It can be said that our province has a long history of tea culture, and it should also be willing to stand at the head of the tide and take on the historical mission of promoting tea culture.
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Jingshan Tea Banquet Experience Space – Jingshan Temple
Tea, the law of nature, virtue and benefit the people, contains the beauty of humanity, and benefits all arts. Taking the selection of this tea as an opportunity, Zhejiang should take advantage of the momentum, focus on tapping its own resource advantages, in-depth implementation of the cultural gene decoding project, explore the humanistic spirit, values and institutional norms contained in tea culture, and closely link with the provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) to coordinate the adoption of rescue protection, productive protection, overall protection and other means, jointly build and share an integrated digital platform, improve the systematic protection system of traditional tea-making skills and related customs, and fully unite the world’s largest number of tea planters, tea pickers, tea makers, The painstaking efforts, wisdom and spirit of tea drinkers continue the cultural context in the inheritance from generation to generation, draw concentric circles that enhance cultural self-confidence and self-improvement, and constantly forge the sense of community of the Chinese nation.
2. Focus on expanding the tea industry and empowering common prosperity first
Tea is both culture and wealth. In the land of China, from tea products with different colors, aromas, tastes and shapes, to tea customs with thousands of weather and colorful colors, all reflect the practical results of non-genetic inheritance, reflect the Chinese people’s yearning for a better life and the pursuit of physical and mental health, and also give birth to a large number of market entities and a variety of product forms, promote the diversified development of tea songs, tea dances, tea operas and other performance forms, and also create tea houses, tea houses and other related spaces, thus extending a rich and diverse, The continuous derivation of the industrial chain vividly witnesses the never-ending diligence and creativity of the Chinese nation.
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On-site experience of Jingshan Sansheng Zen tea culture
During his work in Zhejiang, General Secretary Xi Jinping once said incisively: “A leaf has achieved an industry and enriched the people.” This leaf is the tea leaf, and the people on this side are not divided into north and south, and can be seen everywhere in all directions of Zhejiang. As a major tea-producing province, Zhejiang can be described as an important base for the production, processing and export of green tea in the world, ranking third in the country in terms of tea output value, and ranking first in tea exports, tea brands and tea science and technology education. In 2017, the China International Tea Expo was permanently settled in Hangzhou. In Zhejiang, many farmers and enterprises rely on tea planting and tea making, leaving behind “green waters and green mountains” and creating “gold and silver mountains”. In recent years, tea culture has effectively driven the development of the tea industry and tea technology, and has also created a large number of opportunities for employment and income, bringing tangible benefits to the urban and rural masses.
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Humanistic Teahouse December Order
In accordance with the decision-making and deployment of the CPC Central Committee, Zhejiang is accelerating high-quality development and building a common prosperity demonstration zone. Focusing on empowering common prosperity first, we should further expand the tea industry, combine the implementation of the national pilot project of “promoting the high-quality development of traditional crafts” and “intangible cultural heritage to help rural revitalization”, encourage the creation of tea intangible cultural heritage workshops and traditional craft workstations, vigorously cultivate leading enterprises and characteristic brands with core competitiveness, promote the integration of primary, secondary and tertiary industries, and promote industry-university-research cooperation. Enhance the value chain, and strive to stabilize the tea garden area in the province at 3 million mu in 2025, the output value of tea will exceed 30 billion yuan, and the output value of the whole tea industry chain will exceed 150 billion yuan. It is necessary to thoroughly implement the “550000” project for the integration of culture and tourism, plan to launch a series of tea-themed tourist attractions, tourist routes, homestays and tea culture tourism products, etc., to create a quality life that exudes the fragrance of tea and the charm of tea, continue to expand the dividends of tea heritage, and give full play to the role of promoting common prosperity.
3. Strive to promote the character of tea and cultivate the civilization and fashion of the new era
The holiness of tea nature can best moisten and wash people’s character. Lu Yu put forward the tea ceremony theory of “fine practice and frugality” in the “Book of Tea”, which raised the daily life content of drinking tea to the spiritual level. Since ancient times, tea, along with plum, orchid, bamboo, and chrysanthemum, has been regarded as a symbol of a gentleman’s personality by literati and artists, and a large number of poems and songs have been written for tea. Because of its subtle, introverted, peaceful and tolerant temperament, tea has become a natural thing that has become the spokesperson and portrayal of the noble sentiments of virtuous and elegant people.
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Tea is not only elegant, but also the most down-to-earth. “Firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea” is known as the seven things that open the door, and it can be seen that tea is inextricably linked with Chinese life. To some extent, tasting tea is also tasting life. For example, the tea should not be poured too full, too full will not be served, not too hot, too hot will not be unbearable, not too strong, too strong will hurt the spleen and stomach, not too little, too little will not have the taste of tea. Due to the special symbol of tea and the many philosophies attached to it, generation after generation of people have practiced the cosmology, world, society and morality of the Chinese nation with tea elegance and morality, and then from tea to personality. Tea culture has also been deeply integrated into people’s lives, becoming an indispensable part of the spiritual world of the Chinese nation, and an important carrier for the whole society to promote traditional virtues and improve humanistic qualities.
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Tea is not only elegant, but also the most down-to-earth. “Firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce and vinegar tea” is known as the seven things that open the door, and it can be seen that tea is inextricably linked with Chinese life. To some extent, tasting tea is also tasting life. For example, the tea should not be poured too full, too full will not be served, not too hot, too hot will not be unbearable, not too strong, too strong will hurt the spleen and stomach, not too little, too little will not have the taste of tea. Due to the special symbol of tea and the many philosophies attached to it, generation after generation of people have practiced the cosmology, world, society and morality of the Chinese nation with tea elegance and morality, and then from tea to personality. Tea culture has also been deeply integrated into people’s lives, becoming an indispensable part of the spiritual world of the Chinese nation, and an important carrier for the whole society to promote traditional virtues and improve humanistic qualities.
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General Secretary Xi Jinping has talked about tea culture on diplomatic occasions many times, such as talking about the “Tea Ceremony of Ten Thousand Miles” in Russia, “Tea and Wine Theory” in Belgium, and “Tea Friendship” in Brazil… It can be said that tea, as a messenger of peace, profoundly conveys the common values of mankind and is a golden business card of Chinese civilization with a long history and shine on the international stage. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized the need to refine and display the spiritual identity and cultural essence of Chinese civilization, tell Chinese stories well, and spread Chinese voices. Telling the story of millennium tea is a fine theme for telling Chinese stories well, and it is an excellent channel for spreading Chinese voices.
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Hangzhou Tea Expo Conference and Exhibition Center
Zhejiang will stand at the strategic height of promoting Chinese culture to the world, firmly seize the favorable opportunity of tea to be selected as a World Heritage Site, systematically sort out the good stories of intangible cultural heritage and tea, and actively use academic exchange platforms such as the Tea Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the China Tea Museum, the China International Tea Culture Research Association, and the China Tea Society, combined with cultivating more tea lovers and tea people, and send out more loud and pleasant Chinese tea voices through the “Zhejiang Window” with easy-to-understand vivid language and “online + offline” linkage mode. Vigorously promote the integration of traditional tea-making skills and modern scientific and technological means, combine the excellent traditional Chinese culture with the needs of the times, demonstrate the inherent civilization, harmony, self-confidence and openness of tea culture to the people of all countries, promote mutual spiritual communication, and fully display the credible, lovely and respectable image of China.
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Song-style tea break – Qiantang viewing ceremony
Ladies and gentlemen, “tea” was originally written as “荼”, and it was more horizontal than it is now. Lu Yu omitted a stroke, and it became the modern word “tea”. The word “tea” is disassembled, that is, “people are among the grass and trees”. Judging from the hieroglyphs, one less horizontal, it also shows the true meaning of the unity of heaven and man, Taoism and nature, and also reflects the atmosphere of advancing with the times and simplifying the complex. This deletion grasps the balance between change and change, and reflects the Chinese nation’s endless spirit of integrity and innovation throughout the millennium tea context, millennium tea industry, millennium tea character, and millennium tea story.
“If you are not new, you can’t make progress, and if you don’t have old, you can’t keep it. This is the famous quote of Mr. Yan Fu 100 years ago. We firmly believe that under the guidance of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, through the efforts of all parts of the country and all walks of life, the protection of traditional Chinese tea-making skills and related customs will reach a new level, continuously inject vitality into the inheritance, promotion and activation and transformation of tea culture, and let the “Oriental Divine Leaf” compose a more colorful picture scroll for enhancing the influence of Chinese civilization!