"Chinese Tea" was successfully nominated for World Heritage!

On the evening of November 29th, Beijing time, the project "Traditional Chinese Tea Making Skills and Related Customs" submitted by China was approved by the UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and was included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. So far, China has a total of 43 intangible cultural heritage projects included in the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage List and Register, ranking first in the world.

Tea pickers pick tea in a tea garden in Wuyi Mountain, Fujian. Photo by Zhang Xiaoxi

"Traditional Chinese tea making techniques and related customs" are the knowledge, skills and practices related to tea garden management, tea picking, tea hand-making, and tea drinking and sharing. According to local customs, tea makers use tools such as woks, bamboo plates, and baking cages, and apply core techniques such as killing green tea, steaming yellow, piling, withering, making green tea, fermentation, and scenting to develop six major types of tea, including green tea, yellow tea, black tea, white tea, oolong tea, and black tea, as well as processed tea such as scented tea. There are more than 2,000 kinds of tea, which meet the various needs of the people with different colors, fragrances, tastes, and shapes.

A tea maker is withering the "Fuding White Tea". Photo by Zhu Gangqun

Drinking and tasting tea permeate the daily life of Chinese people. People drink and share tea by brewing or boiling it at home, in the workplace, in teahouses, restaurants, temples and other places. Drinking tea is an important medium of communication in activities such as making friends, weddings, worshipping teachers and worshipping sacrifices. Tea is used to entertain guests, to strengthen kinship, to make good neighbors and to make friends. It is shared by many ethnic groups and provides a sense of identity and continuity for related communities, groups and individuals.

"What can I do to add to the quietness after returning home? I make tea by myself in front of the small stove lamp." "I love the arrival of good guests in the cool evening, and I brew a pot of new tea with pine moss." There are countless poems and lyrics related to tea in the writings of ancient Chinese literati and poets. The project has been passed down from generation to generation, forming a systematic and complete knowledge system, extensive and in-depth social practice, mature and developed traditional skills, and a rich variety of handicrafts. It embodies the values ​​of humility, harmony, courtesy, and respect upheld by the Chinese people, has a profound impact on moral cultivation and personality shaping, and has promoted the exchange and mutual learning of world civilizations through the Silk Road, playing an important role in the sustainable development of human society.

Source: People's Daily Online