Tea, Taste and Traders: Cultural Mediators and the Reinvention of China's National Beverage

这项拟议的研究旨在调查中国茶文化在大陆中国的复兴。它将寻求了解已成为中国文化象征的茶叶在浙江省的交易方式--浙江省是重要的茶叶产区。更具体地说，这项研究旨在通过研究这些概念是如何通过贸易来调节的，来探索茶叶作为一种文化商品的形象与中国人身份之间的关系。事实上，我假设这种调解实际上往往是由与当地茶叶生意有关的私人行为者操作的，例如茶馆老板、零售商，甚至生产者，他们向消费者推广茶和茶文化。在采取营销策略时，商人们利用茶叶与中国文化的历史联系，使其消费成为中国特色的定义元素，并塑造其作为一种商品的形象。例如，他们可能会强调喝茶的中国性质，用被认为具有独特中国特色的复杂冲泡方法为客户泡茶。同样，他们也可能在卖茶的同时向顾客“传授”茶文化。所有这些策略都对中国文化的想象和茶叶作为一种文化商品的形象产生了影响。此外，它们与中央政府试图重新定义并向公民和海外推广精致版本的中国文化有关。我的项目还将讨论这一现象，这无疑将通过该领域发生的一些公私合营的茶叶推广活动来体现。为了收集研究数据，我将对茶叶商人和其他类型的茶商进行民族志田野调查，追踪一个生产村庄和省会杭州之间的商业网络。

The proposed study intends to investigate the resurgence of a Chinese tea culture in mainland China. It will seek to understand how tea, which has become a symbol of Chinese culture, is traded in Zhejiang Province - an important tea production area. More specifically, the research will aim at exploring the relationship between tea's image as a cultural commodity and Chinese identity by looking at how these notions are being mediated through trade. Indeed, I hypothesise that this mediation is often operated in practice, by private actors involved in the local tea business such as teahouse owners, retailers and even producers, when they promote tea and tea culture to consumers. As they adopt strategies to market tea, businessmen draw on the beverage's historical associations with Chinese culture, thus both making its consumption a defining element of Chineseness and shaping its image as a commodity. For example, they may emphasise the Chinese nature of tea drinking, by preparing tea to their customers using sophisticated brewing methods identified as distinctively Chinese. Likewise, they might also 'teach' tea culture to their customers as they sell tea. All these strategies have an impact on imaginations of Chinese culture and tea's image as a cultural commodity. Furthermore, they are linked to the central government's attempt to redefine and promote a refined version of Chinese culture to its citizens and abroad. My project will also discuss this phenomenon, which will undoubtedly manifest itself through some of the public-private tea promotion ventures occurring in the field.In order to collect research data, I will conduct ethnographic fieldwork with tea traders and other types of 'mediators' working in the tea business, tracing commercial networks between a producing village and the provincial capital, Hangzhou.