Experiencing China and Chinese culture is every foreign student’s goal when they learn Chinese in China . Keats School has been dedicated to creating various opportunities for our students to feel the real China. In the past, we have taken our students to try the Chinese style massage and Chinese acupuncture, to learn Chinese chess, to play the musical instrument Erhu and to watch Chinese movies. Many students told us that all these wonderful Chinese cultural activities made their trip to China unforgettable.
Recently, Magnus who took the Chinese Language Course + Volunteer in China attended a professional tea ceremony arranged by Keats School. His teacher and Magnus went to a tea house which is located on Chuncheng Road and is the most famous tea house in Kunming – Da Yi Specialty. Magnus was attracted by the luxury decoration once he entered the tea house. Along the walls of the tea house, are different kinds of tea with different varieties and times. The staff introduced each type of tea to Magnus. The large table made of wood in the center of the tea house aroused Magnus’ strong interest. He asked the staff how old the tree was. To his great surprise, that tree was most probably more than 100 years old. The tea set on the table also showed a strong sense of traditional Chinese culture. The staff also explained the difference between Chinese musical instrument Guzheng and Guqin to Magnus. Many facts told by the staff were too interesting to believe.
Before the tea ceremony officially started, the staff of the tea house prepared slides and gave the audience all the necessary knowledge that one should know about tea, including the history of tea, how to appreciate tea, and tea etiquette. The introduction was followed by a beautiful tea ceremony performance from a professional tea specialist. Each step was performed like a dance performance. Magnus was amazed by the beauty of tea.
After the performance finished, all the audience had a chance to make tea by themselves. Although it was Magnus’ first time to make tea, he looked like he got something. Under the instruction of the staff, Magnus put some tea leaves into the tea pot, and poured hot water into the tea pot, and covered the pot. He anxiously waited to see the color of the water after a few minutes. Then Magnus finally got to try the tea he made by himself. According to Chinese etiquette, it is not allowed to fill up the cup with tea soup in order to show respect to the guest. Magnus liked his tea a lot and couldn’t wait to share the tea to all the people at present.
Happy time always went so fast. Experiencing the real tea ceremony in China brought Magnus lots of unforgettable memories. Magnus told us that he hope he could come back to study at Keats again in the future to have a deeper understanding of the language and the culture.
