Abstract

In the past 2 or 3 decades, Chaozhou Gongfucha has stood out among various regional tea-drinking practices in China, gradually spreading from the southeast coast to the interior, and in this process combining with the tea-drinking customs of Taiwan and Fujian to form a contemporary “Kongfu Tea Art.”
In the context of the 21st century global movement to safeguard intangible cultural heritage, Chaozhou Gongfucha is often represented in the promotion activities of Chaozhou local government, in the professional tea art training courses in major cities, and even in the visual narrative portrayed by national documentaries, as a symbol of China's “traditional” tea culture. However, by tracing the origins of Fenghuang-dancong (phoenix single bush) and the connection with the myth of the She people’s founding ancestor, and analyzing data collected from field interviews with prominent people in the local tea industry, tea masters, and the general public, this article reveals that, while evolving from a local practice into a national tradition, Chaozhou Gongfucha has gone through a “social process” which included a series of “adjustments” and “reforms”.
Firstly, in the Chaozhou area, the close connection between Gongfucha and the She people, promoted by the local elite’s “writing culture”, has gradually been diluted, and in its stead a new connection linking Confucianism and Gongfucha has been progressively built up to establish its “legitimacy” as the ”orthodox” representative of Chinese tea art. Secondly, the pursuit of a “refined” life-style by the affluent urban classes has prompted a shift of Gongfucha from an emphasis on practical brewing skills to a focus on visual aesthetics. Thirdly, this transformation of Chaozhou Gongfucha from “skill” to “art” has resulted in a change in the practitioners’ hierarchies and gender roles. Male “masters”, represented by intangible cultural heritage carriers active in government-sponsored ceremonies, are responsible for formulating “traditional” standards; while in commercial settings, younger female tea artists mechanically perform the “procedure” normalized by male masters, to demonstrate the so-called tradition to outsiders.
The passage from “Chaozhou Kongfucha” to “Chaozhou Kongfu Tea Art” － that literally amounts to just a couple words difference － vividly demonstrates that, to gain vitality in a new social environment, the local tea-drinking practice from southeast China had to go through a series of changes in the modernization processes.