It pays to persevere

Qilan Wenshan Baozhong

10 days ago, the Lin Garden closed due to a sudden spike in Covid cases in Banciao. When I arrived at the gate that day, a young worker who was called for repairs, informed me that it had just been closed for a week. So, a week later, I returned, but was told that I couldn't enter, because I had to register my visit at least one day in advance and there would be limits to the number of visitors per day. So, right away, with the help of the lady checking the tickets, I made an appointment for Monday morning to avoid the weekend crowds.

So, the third time was a charm and I was eventually allowed into the gardens! And my reward was having the park almost all for myself! No tourists, no group touring with a guide talking into a shrill microphone, no curious people taking furtive glimpses at my Chaxi. It was simply quiet and beautiful!

I could peacefully go to my favorite spots to prepare my Qilan Baozhong from Wenshan. (Sometimes spots can be taken when there are many visitors, which is why I avoid weekends). The flowers on my Chaxi are weed that was growing, unwanted, near this table located under the shade of a magnificent banyan tree. A light breeze helped lower down the temperature and the fresh, zesty Wenshan Baozhong felt like the perfect companion on warm day!

In every direction, it looks like a Chinese painting. I particularly love the sight of this tall bamboo in front of a round window. What are these bamboo leaves hiding? Or who are they hiding? Am I really alone in the mansion of Taiwan's richest family during the mid 19th century? Let's have a peak!

I wasn't alone! These 2 young ladies seem to have escaped from the red chamber! Are they the powerful Wang Xi Feng and the lovely Xue Bao Chai or the talented Lin Dai Yu and the lonely Shi Xiang Yun? 

It's such a delight to see this magic happen again and again here! People love to dress in traditional clothes in this Chinese garden. This historical landsite transports us in a beautiful past where poetry and tea are in their natural element!

Lotus on porcelain

In my latest video, I introduce all the novelties and novel teas I have added to my boutique's selection since the start of the summer break. 

There were so many new items that I wanted to address them all in this new format. Writing product descriptions is not much fun, so I hope that a video can be a little bit more entertaining and interesting. In this video, I also answer the link between the pictures of lotus flowers I post and tea.

The direct link is that among the new tea ware are 2 lotus teapots: a blue on white teapot

and this polychrome teapot below. However, I forgot to mention something quite important about these new products in the English video. They are not so new, but were made around 20 years ago by my Taiwanese porcelain workshop. And the reason that I feature them now, in particular, is because this product line of hand painted porcelain ware is slowly but surely selling out. And, as is often the case, you only realize that something is special when it's about to disappear!

These wares are symbolic for an era and a philosophy. It was the era of new affluence when people had more time and money to spend on tea. And the philosophy was to make the beauty of a hand painted flower or landscape affordable and available to a large public without turning it into kitsch. The price was set higher than a similar plain ware, but not that much higher. Unlike Meissen or other luxury porcelain brands that charge a small fortune for their works, because they require a lot of detailed work, these porcelains were painted in large numbers with free brush strokes, like in ancient times. This is obvious when you compare these 2 teapots. 

Unfortunately, these wares didn't find a large market and the painters were let go long time ago. This means that what sells are the decorations that are reproduced by machines cheaply. Otherwise, if you want something painted by an artist, it will be priced accordingly as a piece of art. 

So, let's enjoy the flowers while we can.

Or hope that new seeds will be planted and flourish in the future.

Le thé infuse 'Le Rêve dans le Pavillon rouge'

Pour ma vidéo de rentrée, je vous ai parlé du plus grand roman chinois classique, 'Le rêve dans le pavillon rouge' de Cao Xueqin. C'est un livre que je vous recommande de lire pour tout un nombre de raisons.

Commençons par celle qui est le plus en rapport avec la passion qui nous réunit sur ce blog: le thé! Ce roman n'a pas le thé pour sujet principal, mais, avec plus de 400 mentions du caractère cha/thé, notre boisson favorite est très présente tout au long de l'histoire.

Non seulement l'auteur parle de thé dans le contexte historique du début de la dynastie Qing, mais en plus il le fait dans un cadre très raffiné, celui d'une famille puissante, proche du palais impérial. Et si Cao Xueqin arrive à si bien décrire cette 'ambiance de luxe, c'est car il est lui-même issu d'une famille qui a été très riche. En effet, son arrière grand-mère fut la gouvernante du futur empereur Kangxi, et son grand-père, Cao Yin fut son compagnon d'étude. C'est pourquoi, lorsqu'il accéda au trône, il nomma Cao Xi, le mari de sa gouvernante, au poste d'intendant des soieries impériales de Nankin. Puis, à la mort de Cao Xi, c'est son fils Cao Yin, l'ami d'enfance de Kangxi, qui lui succéda. 

Or, la soie était l'un des produits de luxe chinois par excellence. Son administration permettait de gagner beaucoup d'argent, car la soie servait notamment à confectionner les habits de l'empereur et de toute sa cour! Grâce à cette charge, les Cao avaient aussi un contact direct et privilégié avec un empereur qui leur a même plusieurs fois rendu visite, honneur suprême.

Mais tout n'est pas que luxe, calme et volupté dans la vie et dans ce roman. Dans la vraie vie, à la mort de l'empereur Kangxi, avec l'accession de Yongzhen au trône, ce poste d'intendant des soieries fut confié à un proche du nouvel empereur et les propriétés de la famille Cao furent confisquées. Cao Xueqin doit faire preuve de beaucoup d'imagination pour que son livre n'apparaisse pas comme autobiographique, car il pourrait s'attirer les foudres des censeurs et d'un empereur qui a beaucoup de morts sur la conscience. 

Aussi, le vocabulaire est parfois cryptique, poétique ou très précis. Si bien que dans les facs de lettres chinoises, on a des chercheurs qui se consacrent à l'étude 'du rouge' (hong xue), c'est à dire à l'étude de ce livre majeur, pour bien comprendre tous ses sous-entendus et allusions. Or, en ce qui concerne les nombreuses allusions au thé et aux accessoires, les experts littéraires se sont pratiquement toujours trompés! Et c'est normal, car ils ne sont pas experts en thés ou en céramiques!

Je vous propose donc de lire ce livre. Dans quelques mois, je commenterai alors toutes ces références mystérieuses et vous fournirai les clés et les explications des références au thé!

Bonne lecture! Et elle n'en sera que meilleure si elle est accompagnée d'un Oolong ou d'un puerh de ma sélection! (Note: sur ces photos, en plus des assiettes de la dynastie Qing, j'ai utilisé ma théière zisha datant du règne de Qianlong, contemporain de Cao Xueqin!) Rarement le plaisir du thé n'accompagne avec autant d'à propos la lecture d'un livre.

Celebration Chaxi for my son's university admittance

Spring 2003 competition Dong Ding Oolong

In Taiwan, the university entrance exam is one of the most important milestones in your professional life. Using exams to select the elite for the Chinese government dates back to the Sui dynasty (581-618). A lot of people would apply, but few succeeded. Even the famous Tang poet Du Fu was rejected and complained in many poems about the lack of recognition of his skills, and his poverty.

So, education is very competitive and all parents and pupils' dream is the No. 1 university in Taiwan: NTU, the National Taiwan University! As I have announced yesterday on Facebook, my son got accepted at NTU, in the chemistry department, his dream field!

This is an amazing achievement and we couldn't be happier. Immediately, I thought of a fitting Chaxi to celebrate his performance. The tea of this Chaxi is a top 10 winner of the 2003 Dong Ding Oolong competition. I had been gifted this tea when my son was born and kept some preciously in a qinghua porcelain jar. The fact that this tea got high marks in a competition is a perfect fit.

Then, I wanted to brew this tea in a fitting teapot with a lot of symbolism. In Chinese culture, everything is symbols, and it starts with the language! So, I selected this Yixing Duanni Tiliang teapot with a shipiao shape. On the right hand side, we can see a poem, one of the highest art form of a civilization. It's a symbol for beauty and culture, what my son will continue to learn at the university when he'll study chemistry.

The chrysanthemum on the jar is a festive flower in Chinese culture. It looks like a firework! And the Chabu has a main blue theme, a symbol for the sky, the horizon and a bright future. The powerful dragons flying are the elite students and almost nothing can stop their ascent!   

With good tea and teapot we can obtain the finest results. We are turning a raw material into a delicious and refined beverage! It brings joy and peace of mind. And, on the other side of the teapot are some old Chinese coins. They symbolize the fortune I wish for my son. May he turn his knowledge and research into something useful and valuable for mankind!

My son liked the taste of the aged Oolong, but when I tried to explain all these symbols in this Chaxi to him, he said: "I can bullshit better than that!" Well oh well, he is a teenager, after all! And if he wants to learn about science, it's good to question what he's taught!