www.teaparker.com is the address of Teaparker's new website, a blog format. Its biggest improvement is that pictures are posted in a bigger resolution. So, even if you don't read Chinese, it is still possible to enjoy his beautiful tea pictures. In his latest article, he reports on the latest event at the Taipei Story House (my account was a few days ago, in French).
In other news about my tea teacher, his book Cha Xi, Mandala has received an literary award. No, not the Nobel prize. This one went to Le Clézio, a French writer, yesterday!
On his blog, I also like this picture. It shows him surrounded by his tea books. His latest book, Cha Bei, is not included, though. This means he has now published 20 books about tea!
Thanks for sharing this background with those of us who don't read Chinese. I love the photo of him surrounded by his books!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the 2 books I have from him : pictures are beautifull and very intsructive for me ( même si je ne lis pas le chinois ). Thanks for the link .
ReplyDeleteI do not understand why there is no possibility to have an English version of this blog? Yet Teaparker knows there is a lot of foreign readers who might be interested in his culture, perhaps even more than Chinese !
ReplyDeleteThere are many Chinese websites wich talk about tea, they are almost all in Chinese AND in English ... Stéphane, it starts to be painful to talk all the time about Teaparker and have no opportunity to read what he writes. For his books, it's the same thing... He might at least make the effort to ask one of its English-language students to take charge of the translation of his work.
You take all the time Teaparker as absolute reference. OK and you are surely right. I am the first to be interested in his knowledge. Even frankly, no non-Chinese could not read so far a single line of what he teaches !
So please do not particularly badly what I'm telling you, but it starts to be tiring ...
Philippe,
ReplyDeleteYou could get Babel Fish to translate the blog in English.
I also heard that one of his books, A Walk into the Chinese tea world, will be translated into English.
Otherwise, I think I write a lot about what he says. Of course, I try to use my own words mostly. But I do try to bring you the main points of what he teaches and which I could experience. Also, I think this blog is a good opportunity for an interactive exchange. Books are 1 way only.
To go on with what Philippe wrote, I'd like to say that I asked to a Chinese friend living in France since 4 years to translate me some parts written by Teaparker, saying her that Teaparker is from Taiwan. She told me (without going to the blog) that, for her, if the blog is with traditionnal characters as use Taiwanese people, it might be for her more difficult to unterstand it in traditional Chinese than if is should had been in a foreign language for her like English! Sometimes, I ask her to translate me some words on the bottom of teapot, she says : "here, they are traditional characters, I'm not sure" or "here, they are traditional characters, I don't unterstand !"
ReplyDeleteI will have to purchase one of his tea books. Of the 20 which do you recommend?
ReplyDeleteYou know the old saying, "a picture is worth a thousand words." I find this true of the TeaParker site. How did he acquire that name?
ReplyDeleteedp,
ReplyDeleteFor those who use traditional characters, it is easy to understand the simplified characters in China, though. But the reverse is more difficult. That's true. Simplifying a lanquage is often a loss.
Tea escapade,
The last 3 have the nicest photos. However, for a beginner, I'd suggest the 'Walk in the Chinese tea world'.
Eileen,
Mr. Chih Jung Sien (Teaparker) also likes wine. So, he was inspired by Robert Parker, the American wine critic, when he chose his English name.
Thanks a lot for posting the link to Teaparker's blog. I used to go to a website of his but it was hard to access from mainland China.
ReplyDeleteI would be interested in translating Teaparker's books if he needs someone to do it. I own 6 or 7 of them and they are great reading.