Session 04: Camellia sinensis basics ③: "...All in This Tea" (A)

Topics

❖ Via excerpts from a commercial DVD on tea varieties we cover basic tea types and basic tea wares and basic brewing considerations

❖ Via bio-Documentary on David Hoffman Lee, who buys tea in China and promotes organic tea practices, we practice

• recognizing tea production techniques that we have discussed,
• treat this as a current cultural moment that has received from the past some core cultural valuations affixed to tea, and
• look a little at the politics of tea (which we continue to discuss in historical contexts in both China and Japan)
  

Thoughts—read before class, revisit for tests

Although our emphasis is on tea up until the 17th century, the David Lee Hoffman documentary gives us an opportunity to discuss inter-cultural issues in tea production and distribution.

I show this film for two reasons. First, for those completely unfamiliar with the cultivation and trade of tea in China if provides information on farming and marketing practices. Second, in keeping with the theme of "cultures crossing boundaries" it provides a forum for discuss the processes of cultural exchange. Please view this documentary from both of these perspectives: a glimpse of tea growing and trade in rural China and what you think of Lee's approach to interacting with the Chinese tea industry. David Hoffman Lee lives in Marin Country.

Random comment. (This is not a tea-related comment; it is just FYI if interested.) Werner Herzog appears in this documentary. For those of you who do not know this artist / film director he is worth knowing about. One of his early famous, very dark, movies is "Aguirre, The Wrath of God" (1972). Here's a YouTube trailer of this neat, disturbing movie: Aguirre, the Wrath of God - 1972 - Trailer, Werner Herzog ... or you can "see" him on The Simpsons in an episode called "The Scorpion's Tale" (March 6, 2011).

Required—to be completed for today's session

✓ Nothing, but take notes during the film on the above points. We have discussion time.

✓ Please read the instructions under "Tea Identification Day" (navigate through side bar, "Assignments") since due times are coming up. I will probably make no announcements in class, but I still expect on-time submission of material.

Multimedia notes

❖ "...All in This Tea" (Flower Films, 2007, Les Blank directing) (*This DVD is available for viewing (not checking out) at the Media Center at Moffitt.)

Links

⇢ David Hoffman Lee's Phoenix Collection (puer tea for sale)

Other

Nothing.

Links to each session page

Sun, Sept 1, 2013: I am migrating this site to a new site. It takes time. During this transition, there are two ways to access a particular day's web page. You can start with the new EA109 Fall 2013 Course Guide page, our official top page. It will take you directly to the new pages and redirect to old pages when necessary. Or you can use the below chart. It will take you directly to the day's session page—the new one when it exists, the old one when it has yet to be migrated. Greenhighlight means the new page exists. Sorry for the dust and mess during construction!