For Hangzhou people who love tea, the China Tea Museum must be a familiar place. Now, it has a new change: in order to publicize the traditional tea-making technology in China, let the citizens feel the charm of tea culture together and learn more about Zhejiang tea culture, the China Tea Museum successfully completed its upgrading and re-opened recently.
On the evening of November 29th, 2022, Beijing time, the 17th regular session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO adopted a decision to include the heritage project “China traditional tea-making skills and related customs” declared by the China government in the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of mankind. So far, a total of 43 intangible cultural heritage projects in China have been selected into UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage list (roster), ranking first in the world.
China tea has a long history. China’s mature and developed traditional tea-making techniques and its extensive and in-depth social practice reflect the creativity and cultural diversity of the Chinese nation. The selected “China Traditional Tea-making Techniques and Related Customs” can be called the “most voluminous” in all previous human non-legacy application projects in China, involving 44 national-level non-legacy representative projects in 15 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities), covering traditional tea-making techniques such as green tea, black tea, oolong tea, white tea, black tea, yellow tea and reprocessed tea, and related customs such as Jingshan tea banquet, tea-catching field and Chaozhou Kung Fu tea ceremony.
According to the staff of China Tea Museum, the overall pattern of one museum and two districts of China Tea Museum after transformation and upgrading remains unchanged, but the exhibition content is richer, the educational function is more perfect, the cultural atmosphere is stronger, and the sense of participation experience is also fully upgraded.
For example, the Shuangfeng Pavilion is adjacent to the West Lake, surrounded by mountains and water, and is surrounded by the Longjing Tea Garden in the West Lake. The pavilion is a beautiful garden in the south of the Yangtze River with small bridges and flowing water, shaded forests and winding paths. The permanent exhibitions in the museum include Southern Jiamu-Chinese Tea Culture Exhibition, Special Exhibition of West Lake Longjing Tea, and Beauty Together-Cultural Relics Exhibition of Social Donation of Tea Sets, and the audience can also experience interesting tea drinking customs.
Longjing Pavilion is built on the mountain, with tea trees planted all over the forest, tea kiosks and pavilions scattered among them, and it has an open courtyard with the style of Jiangnan folk houses. World Tea World-World Tea Culture Exhibition, Tea and the World Handed Down from Ancient to Modern-China Traditional Tea-making Techniques and Related Customs are permanent in the museum area, and there is a rich tea custom experience area.
It is worth mentioning that, as an important part of “China Traditional Tea-making Techniques and Related Customs” selected as the main venue for publicity and exhibition of human heritage, the special exhibition “Tea and World Heritage-China Traditional Tea-making Techniques and Related Customs” is of great significance. This is to celebrate the successful selection of “China traditional tea-making skills and related customs” as the theme, promote the popularization and promotion of tea culture in China, and create a common society..Participate in specific actions to protect and inherit a good atmosphere. This special exhibition introduces 39 traditional tea-making techniques and 5 tea customs in China. The exhibition is divided into 4 units, which show the charm of China tea culture through situational and experiential forms.
In the future, the museum will focus on special exhibitions, and cooperate with master studios, non-genetic inheritors and non-genetic institutes to enter institutions, schools, communities, families and tea enterprises, so that more people can know, love and understand tea.
(Editor: Ai Yuxi, Wang Liwei)
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