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Reviving Tea Art

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The discovery and use of tea by the Chinese can be traced back four thousand years. As drinking tea came to be combined with various ceremonies, a particular tea culture gradually formed. 

Chinese tea culture really developed during the Tang Dynasty, as recorded in The Classic of Tea by Lu Yu. Ever since then, people started to enjoy the spiritual joy of drinking tea – taking slow, small sips to appreciate the subtle allure, and to feel the spirit soaring up and up into a sublime aesthetic realm. 

The trend first became popular among the aristocracy, and then later among scholars and artists, and was combined with poetry, art, calligraphy, religion and medicine, and gradually formed a unique and rich Chinese tea culture. 

However, as time went by, some aspects of this tea culture disappeared and today only scattered fragments and references can be found in some ancient poetry and books.  The practice of Chabaixi is one of them. 

Chabaixi is a kind of art that uses only water and wooden tea spoons to paint elaborate patterns on the surface of especially high density tea. The patterns can hold up for hours. This kind of tea art was very popular in the Song Dynasty, but gradually disappeared. 

In 1983, Zhang Zhifeng, was a student majoring in Tea Studies at  Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University when he found some historical records describing this special technique. He was fascinated by this art, and started to research it more in order to try to revive it. 

He spent years collecting ancient texts refering to this art, and even went to Japan to study their tea ceremonies.  After 20 years of researching and experimenting, in 2009, he finally succeeded in bringing Chabaixi back,  and last month at Jade Dragon at City of Dreams, Mr. Zhang presented his passion for this ancient art to a lucky group of diners. 

Mr. Zhang also invited his student to present another special form of tea art – Dian Cha (tea whisking), which was also revived by him.  Dian Cha  was a distinctive way of drinking tea in the Song Dynasty, and was very popular in the region of Wuyi Mountain. The process was used to welcome guests, according to the old saying “whisk the tea upon a guest’s arrival, and serve only water when they leave.”

Chabaixi has been listed as intangible cultural heritage of Wuyishan City, Fujian Province and Mr. Zhang is now dedicated to teaching people about this technique and raising awareness of ancient tea traditionals. 

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