TEA CULTURE UNDER THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION Xun Hern Liaw
ARCO13
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In this essay, I will examine the diversion of the new tea culture from the traditional, and its significance, locally and globally through analysing Bubble Milk Tea. While we are enjoying the blowing wave of the new culture, have we missed anything in between the massive gap among the two cultures and generations?
Cha: by Xun Hern Liaw
I was astonished and amazed at the same time when I first encountered the tea drinking culture in the United Kingdom the moment I stepped into the nation for my tertiary study. Its rich culture which everyone drinks tea as a habit has made me re-think of the cultural background where I was brought up, tea culture as such, that best represent my ethnicity. While the Chinese generally perceive tea drinking as a hobby to mould one’s personalities, it is a common phenomenon today that ‘young people do not drink tea’.
TEA CULTURE UNDER THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION Xun Hern Liaw Contrary to tradition, culture is formed and at the same time transformed which strongly depends not only on one’s cultural background, but also the activities one practises in a specific group of people in a society over a period of time. Homi Bhabha suggests that all cultures are in an on-going process of transformation; even the word ‘Culture’ itself has undergone a series of transformation till how we perceive it today1. In the technological era of 21st century where everything emphasises on efficiency when completing an intended task or purpose, time, cost and effort have become important factors. The one with less time, effort and cost is widely preferable. Taking one of the cultural products in the Chinese/Taiwanese society, Bubble Milk Tea is chosen to support Bhabha’s statement of hybridity. For Westerners, the name might sound new, interesting or even weird, not only by the term bubble, but the way it is being consumed- ice cold. It is non-other than black tea with milk or cream, sugar, and tapioca jellies. The drink originated from Taiwan during the 1980s and became the nation’s drink not long after. Upon buying the drink, you will be given a thick straw (where its diameter is twice or trice larger than the ordinary one) to suck out the “bubbles” from the vacuum sealed plastic cup. However, the term “bubble” refers to nothing that bubbles nor floats on the surface of the milk tea, rather it is the tapioca jellies that sink to the bottom of the cup. The unique combination of ingredients is regarded as the fusion between the East (local tapioca pearls and tea from China mainland) and the West (addition of milk/cream in tea and its final step of preparation which is similar to cocktail). Despite the eminence of cha since Shang Dynasty in the Chinese society as well as the whole world, tea drinking culture seems to be fading day by day, generations by generations in the Chinese lifestyle. Opinions from Chinese younger generations happen to coincide that ‘young generations do not drink cha.’ In other words, cha is only consumed by the elderly. They opt for the alternative- Bubble Milk Tea, a sweet, cold, fast, and reasonably priced beverage. Confronted under the circumstances, the culture is at its brink of extinction from the younger generations. Drawing on the scenario, this essay will examine the diversion and the rising of new tea culture in the Chinese society. Have we or have we not missed anything inbetween?
1 ‘Culture’, Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture (Accessed: 29/4/2013) * For better understanding, the term cha (the purest form, without adding milk or sugar i.e. Chinese tea, floral tea, green tea etc.) is used throughout the essay to differentiate from English tea or milk tea. ** It has always been a controversy to discuss if Taiwan should be part of the province of China. However, discussions on the issues are not meant to be made in this essay though ideas which frame on Taiwan is based on itself as a country on its own. 3
Interrogating Identity
‘Our existence today is marked by a tenebrous sense of survival, living on the borderlines of the ‘present’, for which there seems to be no proper name other than the current and controversial shiftness of the prefix ‘post’: postmodernism, postcolonialism, postfeminism...’1
The post-colonial criticism by cultural theorist Homi Bhabha in his book The Location of Culture emphasized on the cultural hybridity beyond the binary opposition of the West or the Non-West, which is identified by their own people as well as their political movements. Despite the Cultural Revolution (1966) in China, Taiwan has preserved most of the traditional culture and customs, the Confucian philosophies, traditional Chinese characters, tea culture and so on. Today, cha being part of the social fabric of Taiwan has been given a new label and dimension following its economic take-off to meet the urban lifestyle of the citizens. It is no longer regarded as the traditional time consuming tea ceremony with various protocol to be followed; whereas its usage has shifted from for export purposes to local consumption. It is through the ‘habitus’, a term Pierre Bourdieu referred to as the social norm (i.e. lifestyles, values, disposition) created collectively through activities and experiences of everyday life which is contingent and ‘can be changed under unexpected situations or over a long historical period’2 that the new culture has gained its popularity in the Taiwanese/ Chinese new urban lifestyle. By emulating the business strategy of international franchise such as Mc Donald and Starbucks, Bubble Milk Tea enters the global market by introducing the automated sealing machines to substitute the use of plastic lid to ensure a cleaner, quicker preparation of the beverage and at the same time promotes ‘per person per serving’ and ‘instant beverage’ which have totally subverted the impression of traditional tea culture to the locals especially the younger generations. The tendency towards individualism takes its influence from Western culture and marketing strategy to correspond to the economic fabric of Taiwan. It is no longer limited by space, time, people and protocol whereas its use has been shifted from the hand of consumer to producer, i.e. the sellers do the brewing, and the consumers enjoy the beverage. Nonetheless, the new culture does not seem to be appreciated by the elder generations. The essence from tea ceremony that used to mould one’s qualities are seen to be evaporating amidst the atmosphere of the hustle and bustle urban lifestyle of the technology driven generations. They opt for a quicker and cheaper solution to keep up with the fast pace of life, physically and thus mentally. And so, the new culture continues.
Cha which was once one of the seven necessities of every Chinese household can hardly be found in an ordinary Chinese home today. It is not to say that the Chinese has totally abandoned cha, however, it is not deniable that the Chinese lifestyle are not strongly 1 Bhabha, Homi, The Location of Culture, (London: Routledge, 1994) pg.1. 2 Bourdieu and ‘Habitus’, Powercube. Available from: http://www.powercube.net/other-forms-of-power/bourdieuand-habitus/ (Accessed: 29/4/2013) TEA CULTURE UNDER THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION Xun Hern Liaw
In the Chinese culture, it is common to share platters among family and friends. It shows the good and close relationship among each other.
A kettle serving several cups at a time.
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(Below) Individualism from the Western culture has influenced the everyday life in the Chinese culture. Each cup is made custom according to one’s preference.
However, Western culture emphasized on individualism (‘per person per serving’ for example), which take human individual as a central unit of analysis and selfrealization.
associated with it anymore. Often when you ask ‘Let’s have a cup of tea’ to a Chinese, it could mean a lot as tea does not always imply cha, it could be a cup of coffee, a meal out, or a dinner arranged specifically to discuss important matters etc. From here, it can be seen how the traditional tea culture has been affected under the political influences and globalisation that when one asks for a cup of cha, you stop and guess the meaning behind. A concept on dromology by Paul Virilio summarizes the phenomenon:
‘The speed at which something happens may change its essential nature and that which moves with speed quickly comes to dominate that which is slower.’3
Under the fast pace of the technological driven generations, the traditional culture has remarkably been replaced, leaving insignificant shadow under the transformation of the new urban fabric.
A Taste in Zen Hapticity and vision have always been one of the first senses being used by the human being to approach and understand the world. A baby sees and holds on to something and put that into mouth to taste. He then ‘analyses’ the object according to its colour, texture, temperature, taste so on and so forth. A series of understanding from the transition of vision, to haptic, smell, taste and finally to the brain is thus formed. In The Eyes of the Skin, Juliani Pallasmaa stated that: ‘The very essence of the lived experience is moulded by hapticity and peripheral unfocused vision. Focused vision confronts us with the world whereas peripheral vision envelops us in the flesh of the world.’4 In the Chinese culture particularly in tea ceremony, it has fully utilised and unleashed both focussed and peripheral vision of a human being. When savouring a cup of cha, you wrap your five fingers around the warm nice little ceramic tea cup which is heated by the first cup of cha (drained, not meant to be drunk) and let the warmth transfers from the cup to your fingers, through your veins and blood and eventually to the heart. Then, you bring the cup away from the tray to your nose and let the warmth and subtle smell of the cha diffuse through the nostril, activating every cell, and finally to the throat. The saliva inside your oral cavity starts to flow; you could almost taste it in your throat now. Hereafter, you bring the cup slightly away from the nose and appreciate the Chinese calligraphy and/or paintings around the cup. They are often poem, wisdom words and/or landscape paintings. You close your eyes, again bring the cup forward and taste it, subtly and silently.... 3 Paul Virilio in Wikipedia, ‘Paul Virilio’, Wikipedia. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Virilio. (Accessed: 29/4/2013) 4 Pallasmaa, Juliani, The Eyes of the Skin, (London: Routlegde, 2010), pg. 10. 7
The Chinese tea cup which is no bigger than a size of an egg and the amount of cha inside act as a medium that link all human perceptions i.e. touch, smell, sight and taste to the mind. When the first sip of cha ‘travels’ down the throat, you focus on the gradual transition between each sense. You can feel it leaving a trace of warmth behind your tongue, travelling through the oesophagus, lungs and then to the whole body. It is as if you are following the journey of it, from the tea cup to the body then finally reunifies with the mind. A sense of the bitterness that is left behind your throat before has now turned into a trace of plain sweetness, tempting you to take another sip from the cup. The interflow of the senses has often been taken as a metaphor to encourage and embrave people the ups and downs of life. Thus, from a cup of cha, you ‘see’ yourself from its clear texture and ‘hear’ yourself through the tranquillity from within the heart and mind. However, the lived experiences of human particularly after the technology bloom in recent decades has totally changed the perception of human being in the world and affected the way we live, perceive things and receive information. It has sped up the life pace of human being, like a sword with two blades, affected us in good and bad ways. Not only the light-speed velocity of electronic data transmission of technology devices have blurred the boundaries between ‘now’ and ‘then’ ‘here’ and ‘there’, it has also isolated the five senses, celebrating and focussing only the instant sensation. It is what Walter Benjamin called ‘now-time’,5 you do something now, and expect the result now. It is in this nature of now-time that the culture of tea ceremony is gradually fading amidst the lifestyles of the younger Chinese generation as it is time consuming and you cannot expect the instant ‘repay’. Therefore, Bubble Milk Tea becomes a substitution. The stimulant of the coldness of the drink due to the vast amount of ice inside the plastic cup has substituted the warmth from cha. It gives us the instant cooling sensation that directly excites the sensory cells on the skin to the brain. However, it is often so cold that water droplets started to form around the cup, too wet to hold in hand, thus adding layers of tissue papers or plastic bag to cope with that situation. However, they have at the same time hindered even the instant sensation, leaving an empty void in your hand. In addition to that, the younger generations opt for Bubble Milk Tea for its extreme sweetness compared to cha for it meets and satisfies the instant sensation both for the mouth and mind. According to Benjamin:
‘...a key feature of real time technologies is that they function as a sort of monochromic filter that screen or cut out concern for the past and future’.6
From Bubble Milk Tea we have learnt that all of the delicate movements you do in a tea ceremony are being replaced by the swift movement of the arm and immediate impact made 5 Khatib, Sami, The Time of Capital and the Messianicity of Time: Marx with Benjamin, Anthropological Materialism. Available from: http://anthropologicalmaterialism.hypotheses.org/844 (Accessed: 1/5/2013) 6 Virilio in Purser, Ronald E., The Coming Crisis in Real-Time Environments: A Dromological Analysis, San Francisco State University. TEA CULTURE UNDER THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION Xun Hern Liaw
by the sharp edge of the straw to pierce through the plastic wrapping on top. The traditional codes of ethics and conduct are lost. The vacuum sealed plastic cup has not only sealed all the human senses behind but also the traditional tea culture in the history and memory of the older generations which lays vulnerably at the edge of extinction from the life of the younger generations nowadays. Technology driven world has hindered the human perception in every way, too much reliance on devices and social networks have lead us to the road of losing the peripheral vision and as a result we no longer stay in the world, we stay on the surface.
In Search of the Emptiness With the help of high end electrical products, distance is no longer measured by the linear expressions of how far apart two objects are whereas speed is: ‘…equated with real-time data transmission moving at the speed-of-light—giving rise to what is now understood as instantaneity.’7 The shorten ‘distance’ across the space and the digitalized speed up is, according to Paul Virilio, the transition from chronological time to chronoscopic time.
It ‘... involves a radical change in temporal orientation, and the very means by which we make sense of our lives. Chronoscopic time signals an intense compression. The extensive time of history, chronology, and narrative sequence implodes into a concern and fixation with the real-time instant. What used to comprise a narrative history—sense-making based on knowledge of the past, present and future--contracts into the buzz of a flickering present.’8
Chronological time applies to something that happens within a certain time frame (before, during and after) with causes and reasons. It is history or narrative driven where individual makes sense of oneself based on one’s past experiences, historical and cultural background. For tea ceremony to be passed down thousands of years and eventually become the cultural identity of the nation, there must be certain qualities or essences that should be valued and celebrated. Besides the human perceptions in a tea ceremony being discussed earlier, the clarity of water and its temperature when brewing, the qualities of cha, tea set to one’s manner when offering cha are all key elements to be considered when brewing a cup of nice cha. The tea set is often decorated with great works from famous poets, calligraphers and painters. Through these great works, children will gain better understanding about the culture, history and even each individual Chinese character. Experts in evaluating ancient artefacts would 7 Purser, Ronald E. ‘Critical Perspectives on “Real-Time” Management’, Making Time: Time in Modern Organizations, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pg. 11. 8 Virilio in Purser, Ronald E., ‘The Coming Crisis in Real-Time Environments: A Dromological Analysis’, San Francisco State University. Available from: http://online.sfsu.edu/rpurser/revised/pages/DROMOLOGY.htm (Accessed:1/5/2013) 9
even trace its manufacturing period through these great works. Therefore, different depth of conversations occur between the master (when composing or painting) and his works of art, the viewer (when evaluating the works) with the master and peers (when savouring cha) with their companion. The flow of knowledge through the art depicted on the tea sets occurs within a certain time frame: from the past to the current to the future. Chronoscopic time on the other hand, is the compression of chronological time through technological based product. Individual sense making is temporal and happens at the speed of light. Let us take a look at what Steve Jobs said about the digital communication technology:
‘…with high bandwidth to my home in place, people can send me e-mail over the Internet and I receive it instantly. What this means is that they learn very quickly that, if I want to, I can respond immediately, even if I am sitting at my computer at home at midnight. But this also means that if I don’t respond instantly, there’s no cover for me to hind behind. They expect of my now. So, at nine o’clock at night, when I’m with my family, it’s very hard to resist the urge to take fifteen minutes and go check my e-mail....’9
From here, we can see that temporal sense making (being an employer) occurred at the moment when Jobs checked and probably replied his emails at night after working hours. For 15 minutes, he was neither father of the family nor the husband to his wife; he was the employer. However, when he turned his gaze away from the screen or finished reading his emails, he became once again the father and husband. Based on Dromology concept by Virilio, Ronald E. Purser wrote
‘Chronoscopic time...... represents a movement away from a cultural rhythm based on analogue and spatial sequences, to a world punctuated by discontinuous temporal intensities fixated on the present-instant.’10
Once the connection breaks (i.e. no longer rely on the digital data/ technological devices), we will be instantly brought back to the reality. Let us look at the cultural significance of Bubble Milk Tea in the present-instant chronoscopic time frame. Overseas Chinese find familiarity when buying a cup of Bubble Milk Tea in foreign countries (however slight changes are made due to localisation to meet the locals’ needs) as it brings back the taste of home and memories of when being there. It enables us to make sense of whom and where we are at that particular moment. This brings us back to Lefebvre’s concept of conceived space in the Spatial Triad model. However, Purser stated that:
9 Steve Jobs in Purser, Ronald E., ‘The Coming Crisis in Real-Time Environments: A Dromological Analysis’, San Francisco State University. Available from: http://online.sfsu.edu/rpurser/revised/pages/DROMOLOGY.htm (Accessed: 1/5/2013 ) 10 ibid. TEA CULTURE UNDER THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION Xun Hern Liaw
(Above) Tea cups decorated with Chinese wisdom words in Calligraphy.
(Below) Plastic seal of Bubble Milk Tea showing nothing but the label of the cafe shop.
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‘A temporal orientation that is fixated on instantaneity places limits on our attention span. Knowledge is reduced to knowledge of the present, a bundle of information that can be instantaneously consumed. In so-called real-time, there is no history or future—no time available for serious reflection or creative imagination.’11
Despite being the new cultural identity of the nation today, Bubble Milk Tea does not seem to carry any trace of cultural significance from tea ceremony, in terms of literature, history or traditional moral of value. Rather, riddles, jokes and horoscope of the day have replaced the masters’ great works. Their 24-hour ‘life span’ does not carry any value for evaluation. You laugh at the jokes, guess the riddles and believe in the horoscope. Soon after the ‘instant’, ‘now’ or ‘today’ they would become just a group of words which project no meaning as another compilation will replace the ‘instant’. This is the common phenomenon for fast culture.
‘…It opens up the incredible possibility of a “civilization of forgetting,” a live (live- coverage) society that has no future and no past, since it has no extension and no duration, a society intensely present here and there at once...’12
That is why we stay on the surface, barely touching the flesh of the world. In fact, we are never ‘there’. Thus, a culture without any cultural significance from the past is therefore a culture without its life.
11 Purser, Ronald E., ‘Critical Perspectives on “Real-Time Management”’, Making Time: Time in Modern Organizations, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002), pg. 3. 12 Virilio in Purser, Ronald E., The Coming Crisis in Real-Time Environments: A Dromological Analysis, San Francisco State University. TEA CULTURE UNDER THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION Xun Hern Liaw
Conclusion Taking the new culture - Bubble Milk Tea in the Chinese/ Taiwanese society by framing ideas on: Interrogating Identity (questioning the identity of the new culture under the influences of globalization and Western culture); A Taste of Zen (human perception when savouring a cup of cha and Bubble Milk Tea) and In Search of the Emptiness (searching for the collective loss of memories of the past that could lead to ‘civilization forgetting’), it is understood that most of the essences from the traditional tea culture are lost amidst the atmosphere of the technological era. When we are enjoying and celebrating the hybridization between two cultures, it is important to think the nature that is embedded in both the traditional and new culture, and not to accept it blindly. We should try to bring the complexity into analysis, for the new culture should be formed and evolved from the roots of a certain culture, i.e. future generations should be able to trace the beginnings or origins that form the new culture. Globalisation brings advantages to our lifestyles, blurring territory and time boundaries. Nonetheless, similarities among global culture made each human individual identical, thus making one concerns about the traditional cultures that might be washed away under the waves of globalisation. When similarities dominate the dissimilarities, it makes one to lose the roots of traditional culture and at the same time filter out the memories and history individually and collectively in time. How do we gain the fruits of globalisation when we loss the traditional cultural roots thus becomes a question to be solved internationally as well as locally.
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Bibliography Analysis of the Introduction to The Location of Culture by Homi Bhabha, Foundations of Literary Criticism (381/581). Available from: http://www.uwosh.edu/faculty_staff/henson/381/ samples/bhabha_samp.html (Accessed: 29/4/2013) Bhabha, Homi, The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 1994). Bourdieu and ‘Habitus’, Powercube. Available from: http://www.powercube.net/other-formsof-power/bourdieu-and-habitus/ (Accessed: 1/5/2013) Canete, Aloy, ‘The Production of Space by H. Lefebvre (Aloy)’. Available from: http://thinkingculture.blogspot.co.uk/2004/12/production-of-space-by-h-lefebvre-aloy.html (Accessed: 1/5/2013) Cultural Capital, Wikipedia. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_capital (Accessed: 1/5/2013) Habitus (sociology), Wikipedia. Available from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habitus_(sociology) (Accessed: 2/5/2013) Introduction to the Production of Space. Available from: http://myweb.fsu.edu/jjm09f//1%20 Final%20Project%20Materials/lefebvreintro.html (Accessed: 1/5/2013) Lefebvre, Henri, tans. Donald Nicholson-Smith, The Production of Space (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2007). Pallasmaa, Juliani, The Eyes of the Skin (Cornwall: TJ International Ltd, 2010). Purser, Ronald E., ‘Critical Perspectives on “Real-Time Management”’, Making Time: Time in Modern Organizations, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002). Taiwan Tea Culture - Tea is Life, Tea Genius. Available from: http://www.teagenius.com/ brewing-and-serving-tea/1065-taiwan-tea-culture-tea-is-life.html (Accessed: 28/4/2013)
Image References All images by author
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