In May I ran a tea-tasting afternoon with friends at college. 20 people dropped by to try the seven teas I provided. My favourite part of the afternoon was hearing all the different favourites – pretty much every tea was someone’s favourite.
In this post I am going to introduce you to teas infused with, or made of, ingredients other than Camellia Sinensis leaves. There are scented teas like Jasmine and Osthamanthus, flower teas like Rose and Chrsyanthemum, blooming teas, and even tea made of lichen.
Many categories of Chinese tea are known by a colour designation: White, Green, Yellow, Red, Blue-Green, and Black. Differences in leaf and process, amount of fermentation (and other factors) create the different categories.
The phrase “I love you” is used very differently in Chinese than in English. For many people the phrase 我爱你 just feels/sounds wrong. Last year a video of Chinese young adults saying “I love you” to their parents – and the parents’ shocked reactions – went viral.
My introduction to Chinese tea came during my first visit to China in 1999. Back then I knew very little about Chinese tea, but after more than ten years in China I know a lot. I am really interested in Chinese tea, and hope to help you understand and find an interest in it as well.
In Chinese certain numbers “mean” certain things. This makes phone numbers a bit of fun in China. Companies often try to play on numbers to make something memorable. Sichuan Airlines famously spent $300,000 on a phone number. The number string 5201314 means “I will love you forever”.
Today is Chinese new year’s eve! It’s such a fun time of year to be in China and it’s strange not to be there – a reminder that I really have started a new season of my life. This is actually the first time in ten years that I am outside China for Chinese new year! Here is a collection of those stories I’ve written about Chinese new year and its various traditions.
You might assume that as a language of pictograms, Chinese would have no acronyms. I always did. Turns out I was wrong. Chinese has a cleverly simple way to create standard abbreviations even with no phonetic alphabet.
I enjoy having an outlet for my thoughts and I am constantly surprised that many other people are interested in those thoughts. As this year comes to a close I’ve been looking back over this year’s overlap between what I find interesting and what you find interesting – the posts that received the most traffic in 2014.
To learn language well means going beyond translating English thoughts into Chinese, instead expressing myself in wholly Chinese thoughts – to see the world through that lens. To not be chained to “front” as “future” and “behind” as “past”.
The modern hukou system started in 1958 to register citizens and control migration between rural and urban areas. The government has started changes to these restrictions, but many Beijingers are prejudiced against rural citizens.
A large part of cultivating Good China Days is changing assumptions and expectations. Here are a bunch of things that help me adjust my attitude toward China – and create space for days that make me love this country, and its people.
Stories From Tanya 