Zongming nodded his head as he listened, hearing in Puzi's story the counterpart to his own. Both of them agreed that the only way to get used to the local environment was to eat the local food and drink the local drink. Considering each other's position, they found that neither Puer tea was uniquely authentic, and they realized that one's preference between raw/cold Puer tea and aged/warm Puer tea was a matter of local culture. As Zongming moved from Hong Kong to Yunnan, he discovered that the authenticity of Puer tea was mobile, too. But he later found out that the authenticity of Puer tea not only diverged from place to place but also varied in the same place over different periods. Once it was tested on the historical timeline, the authenticity of Puer tea would become even more mobile.
PUER GREEN TEA: FAN AND MI
Hongtu's tea shop became a place where Zongming met more friends and tried more types of tea. One afternoon he met Lao Li, who was a tea trader in Kunming. Lao Li was about the same age as Zongming, and the two shared many comparable experiences. On this afternoon, Hongtu took out a special tea to brew. It was special not because of its age (fifteen years), nor because of where it had been stored (Yunnan), but because of the name marked on its box: “Puer green tea made from spring buds” (Puer lü cha chun rui). It was loose tea, and the term “spring buds” proved that it was made of the highest-grade raw material. What was confusing was that it claimed two identities: Puer tea and green tea (fig. 8.1). Puer tea had originally been categorized as dark tea by academic tea experts in China. Around the turn of the twenty-first century, some tea researchers from Yunnan began to argue that it should be classified in an independent tea category because its production process was distinct from that of dark tea. Before the boundary between dark tea and Puer tea could be established, a new dispute over the distinction between green tea and Puer tea emerged. Loose-leaf tea made from spring buds had long been considered a variety of high-quality green tea in Yunnan, but by 2007, when Hongtu infused it for Zongming and Lao Li, it had come to be recognized by the market as a kind of Puer tea despite its misleading name. The reclassification happened after Puer tea became famous, and this newfound recognition would increase Puer green tea's value. If it was green tea, after fifteen years it would have lost its value and could just be thrown away. But if it was Puer tea, it could be stored for a long time and sold for a high price.
Whatever it was, Hongtu infused it for the guests. The brew was reddish-yellow, proving that some transformation had occurred during aging. Lao Li, who had tasted a similar kind of tea when it was fresh, pointed out that the brew would be faint yellow if it hadn't been aged. I found the flavor astringent, not as smooth as the bamboo tea, without the lingering aftertaste as the Mengku tea, and lacking the fresh aroma that one would expect from green tea. Lao Li said he agreed with Zou Jiaju, the head of the Yunnan Tea Association, who advocated in his books and on his blog that tender tea buds were good for making green tea but not good for Puer tea; tough tea leaves and stems were better for Puer tea and aging would only improve them further (Zou Jiaju 2004: 90; 2005: 133). Zou's idea had many opponents, and another of his ideas encountered even more opposition. He argued that newly produced raw Puer tea that had not been further fermented was not really Puer tea, but was in fact closer to green tea. He referred to such tea as mi (raw rice), and authentic Puer tea as fan (cooked rice). The latter category included both aged Puer tea with long natural fermentation and Puer tea with accelerated artificial fermentation (Zou Jiaju 2004: 4; 2005: 109).
Zou was from Yunnan. Working in the Yunnan Tea Import and Export Company had given him many opportunities to learn about the tea-drinking habits of the Pearl River Delta, and in Yunnan he famously promoted artificial fermentation. When I interviewed him, I found that he had accepted the idea of fan. While we were talking, he brewed the artificially fermented Puer tea that was produced by his company. Later we went out for lunch. The restaurant we went to is known for its thin rice noodles, but Zou chose the thick ones. When I asked why, his answer was consistent with his Puer tea preference: “The thick ones are fermented, but the thin ones aren't.”
Raw unfermented Puer tea is the dominant type consumed in Yunnan, but some Yunnanese prefer the fermented type. Some tea drinkers attributed this preference to the condition of their stomach. They agreed with Zou Jiaju, and also with people from the Pearl River Delta like Zongming, who felt that fan was warm, smooth, and beneficial for one's stomach, but mi was too astringent and harmful, and should be consumed only in small quantities. Furthermore, I found that people who had been trained in tea science, like Zou Jiaju, stressed that the key characteristic of Puer tea was “postfermentation.” That is, there had to be a certain degree of chemical reaction in the tea, whether oxidation or the biochemical reaction caused by microbes. As far as they were concerned, Puer tea could be naturally fermented, but this took a long time, whereas artificial fermentation took only two or three months. Because aged raw Puer tea was not available in Yunnan—most of it having been stored in Taiwan or Hong Kong—the artificially fermented type became the reference point for the tea science people of Yunnan, who regarded artificial fermentation as a great innovation in tea processing (Liu Qinjin 2005; Xu Yahe 2006; Zhou Hongjie 2004; Zou Jiaju 2004; Ruan Dianrong 2005a).
However, this viewpoint was opposed by some producers who didn't take up the artificial fermentation technique, and by some traders whose business concentrated on newly produced raw Puer tea. It was also opposed by some consumers, mostly from Yunnan, whose palates were faithful to the raw type, which they didn't consider harmful to their health. In other publications and websites, and in informal conversation, these opponents countered that Zou was abridging the history of Puer tea. They said that according to Zou's authorization of fan, the history of authentic Puer tea could start only in 1973. They questioned how to define the compressed tea freshly consumed in Yunnan a long time ago, which was carried to Tibet and to the emperor in Beijing during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries (Gao Fachang 2009: 193–194).
The ambiguous “Puer green tea” served by Hongtu and the debates between mi and fan showed the complexity in distinguishing the authenticity of Puer tea in recent years. The preference for mi or fan was not simply based upon acclimatizing to local climate and customs, as discovered by Zongming. Preferences were also shaped by the negotiation of trade and consumption between Yunnan and the outside world. The preference for warm and smooth Puer tea from the Pearl River Delta was an outside forces, which had influenced the categorizing of Puer tea in Yunnan and also inspired the innovation in production techniques. At the same time, there were internal forces, such as the accelerating economic development of Yunnan and its desire for distinct self-representation. This self-representation, shaped by negotiation with the outside, presented multiple rather than singular voices.
When I asked how long they'd been drinking Puer tea, most of my interviewees from Yunnan told me that they had been doing so since the mid- or late 1990s, or sometime after 2000. No one gave a year prior to the mid-1990s, suggesting that a popular and “clear” conception of Puer tea didn't emerge in Yunnan until after that time and especially after the turn of the twenty-first century. When I asked the same question in Hong Kong, most of my interviewees found it hard to answer. Many of them said they had always drunk Puer tea. One elderly man whom I met at a yum cha restaurant told me, “I know that before I was born, my grandfather drank Puer tea.”
Back at Hongtu's teahouse, Zongming and Lao Li, both fifty-three, declared that they had grown up drinking Puer tea, one in Hong Kong and the other in Yunnan. The discussions about “Puer green tea,” however, made it clear that the two men had grown up with different versions of Puer tea. To Zongming, the Puer tea drunk daily with yum cha in Hong Kong was fan, the artificially fermented or aged raw type. The transformation of Puer tea from mi to fan is said to have been casually and “naturally” accomplished in the long journey by caravan from Yunnan, or via aging in storage by the Cantonese. These two factors seemed more
plausible when they were combined with another story: from the 1950s to the early 1970s, unaged Puer tea that was exported by rail and road from Yunnan to Hong Kong was rejected by local consumers, who were reluctant to recognize such raw tea as Puer tea (Zhou Hongjie 2004; Zou Jiaju 2004). Rather, they preferred to wait until this raw tea was fermented in Guangdong or Hong Kong with added water (fa shui) and blended with tea leaves from Guangdong. The rejection of the raw tea was due to the fact that modern transportation had replaced the slow caravan. Many months’ “cooking” by caravan was suddenly shortened to only two or three days. Under pressure from these changed conditions, the national tea factory of Yunnan sent its staff to learn the basic fermentation techniques from Guangdong and Hong Kong, and finally a more mature technique of artificial fermentation was invented in Kunming in 1973 (YTIEC 1993; Zhou Hongjie 2004; Zou Jiaju 2004). With this new technique, tea was transformed from mi to fan in just two or three months.5
The situation within Yunnan, however, was more complicated and changeable. As the production region, it had to cater to the demands of outside consumption, but at the same time locals swung between preferring fan or mi. While producing fan for Hong Kong consumers, the Yunnanese also continued to produce mi to consume themselves. To Lao Li, the teas that he had grown up with before 1973 were a variety of locally produced green tea. The difference between these teas depended mainly on which drying process had been used: sunning, steaming, stir-roasting, or baking. Mi, the uncooked Puer tea in Zou Jiaju's terms, actually referred to Yunnan sun-dried green tea, which was also at that time called Dian Qing.6 Lao Li told us that the concept of Puer tea then was very vague. Normally the compressed form, such as bowl-shaped tea, was called Puer tea (actually raw tea), while the loose-leaf tea was sometimes called Puer tea and sometimes called green tea. The perplexing name “Puer green tea,” Lao Li said, could have come from this period of vagueness. No matter what, though, if the green tea was over two years old, it would be thrown away. This Puer green tea, according to Lao Li's supposition, survived because of the carelessness of someone who had forgotten it, as storing Puer tea for its aged value wasn't practiced in Yunnan until recently.
Lao Li said that even after artificial fermentation was invented in 1973, he didn't immediately have a chance to taste the new artificially fermented Puer tea. This further convinced me that this artificially type of Puer tea was not made for domestic consumption in Yunnan. Rather, it was intended “to cater to the demand of the international market”—namely, Hong Kong and Macao, where Puer tea was consumed and also traded to other Southeast Asian and European countries (YTIEC 1993: 160). Lao Li first encountered artificially fermented Puer tea in the mid- or late 1990s. At first, its “moldy” smell surprised him and he wondered what type of tea it was. But he gradually came to accept its flavor as well as its function of warming the stomach. He also accepted that it was Puer tea, as he had learned from the market and some popular books.
Why did Yunnanese people start drinking artificially fermented Puer tea in the mid- to late 1990s? This can be explained in terms of China's economic development. The mid-1990s marked the beginning of China's economic ascent after the Reform and Opening Up. All kinds of material culture from overseas, such as pop music and food from Hong Kong and Taiwan, were entering the mainland and becoming popular (see Gold 1993). Yunnan, as a relatively undeveloped southwestern province, was urged to accelerate its economic development under a major national project called “Opening the West” (Xibu da kaifa), formally proposed by the central government in the late 1990s. It was in this context that Yunnan tried to boost its economy. Tourism to Yunnan began to increase at that time, and souvenirs were needed. Puer tea became one of them. One tour guide in Kunming told me that in 1996 and 1997, when she took tourists to tea shops in Kunming, what passed for Puer tea—a local and uniquely Yunnanese product—was always dark-colored, artificially fermented tea. So, artificially fermented Puer tea consumed in Hong Kong and Taiwan (which bought Puer teas from Hong Kong) began to enter the view of consumers in Yunnan, who suddenly realized that this popular “overseas” drink was originally locally produced. And in fact, at this stage, “Puer tea” referred to fan (artificially fermented Puer and aged raw Puer), whereas mi, then called Dian Qing, was applied to green tea.
Lao Li recalled that in the early 2000s, four or five years after he started drinking artificially fermented Puer tea, the market began to differentiate between raw and artificially fermented Puer tea. Dian Qing (Yunnan sun-dried green tea) was now considered Puer tea, but was given a new name—raw Puer tea. Tea advertising encouraged the aging, rather than fresh consumption, of both raw and artificially fermented Puer tea. The inclusion of raw Puer tea resulted from cooperative action between the local state and traders to promote Puer tea output in Yunnan (Tang Jianguang, Huan Li, and Wang Xun 2007a). Promoters of Puer tea recognized that artificial fermentation required special techniques and had high investment costs whereas raw Puer tea was easier to produce in large quantities and “natural fermentation” could be left to consumers themselves. That is, fan was hard to cook, whereas mi was easy to supply. This approach happened to meet the original palate of some Yunnan consumers for green tea, with which raw Puer tea had a close relationship. At the same time, the Taiwanese demand for raw Puer tea also helped boost its popularity. I learned from interviews with Hong Kong and Taiwanese traders that, as in Yunnan, many Taiwanese initially disliked the “moldy” smell of artificially fermented Puer tea and preferred naturally fermented raw tea. As a result of these various influences, in the first years of the twenty-first century, Yunnan began to promote the production of raw Puer tea. In this period many popular books, by both Taiwanese and Yunnanese writers, favored raw Puer tea over artificially fermented Puer tea, as it was aged naturally and was thus considered healthier and richer in cultural meaning (Lei Pingyang 2000; Deng Shihai 2004). It was even rumored that artificial fermentation could cause cancer. Yet the debate between fan and mi continued, and some tea experts, such as Zou Jiaju and some researchers from the tea academia, acknowledged only fan as true Puer tea. They stressed that the central feature of Puer tea was “postfermentation,” and they argued that the microbe generated during artificial fermentation was beneficial to people's health (Liu Qinjin 2005; Zhou Hongjie 2004, 2007; Zou Jiaju 2004, 2005). Nevertheless, there was general agreement that both mi and fan could be aged for a long period. The old habit of throwing away tea after two years was largely abandoned. “The older the better” became the basis for the ongoing popularity of all Puer tea.
NEW TRADITION
When we tired of sitting around the tea table, Hongtu, Lao Li, and I took Zongming for a walk around Kunming. This trip allowed Zongming to see how the updating of what was considered authentic Puer tea had occurred alongside urban development in the city.
We started at Hongtu's tea shop. After walking for only five minutes, Zongming noticed that there were many tea shops nearby. Hongtu's tea shop is located beside Green Lake Park, a central leisure place in Kunming. Surrounding the lake, which is about 2.5 kilometers long, are almost thirty establishments that serve tea. Five more are located inside Green Lake Park. Hongtu's tea shop is an example of one type of tea establishment, which sells tea—mainly Puer tea—along with tea sets and associated decorations. Guests can sit down, talk to the tea master, and participate in a free tea tasting before actually buying. But seats are limited and available for only seven or eight people at a time. Another type of tea establishment is larger and has ample seating. The main service in this kind of shop is to provide infused tea for guests to enjoy by themselves. Some also supply snacks, juice, or even wine. This is the most common type of tea shop around the lake. The least common, and the most remarkable in appearance, is the third type, which serves as both a restaurant and teahouse, housed in quadrangle courtyard dwellings, mostly built in the late nineteenth or the early twentieth century by wealthy people. With tiled roofs, wooden pillars, wooden floors inside, and stone paving in the c
ourtyard, these shops share many similarities with traditional houses in Yiwu, but having been newly decorated, they look more luxurious. Formal lunch and dinner are provided, accompanied by tea or alcoholic drinks. Sometimes there are zither music performances. Between meals, guests can also come just for tea.
Kunming is the most important center for Puer tea distribution and consumption in Yunnan. The area around Green Lake Park is only one of the famous places where retail tea shops and tea restaurants are located. For wholesale tea trading, there are nine big wholesale tea markets, scattered around the urban fringe. The earliest one opened in 2002, and the largest one contains almost six hundred tea shops. At the end of 2007 four or five more wholesale tea markets were rumored to be under construction, but there were doubts about whether they would be able to successfully open due to the sudden recession in the Puer tea market.7 According to one survey, at the end of 2006 there were a total of four thousand wholesale, retail, and service tea units in Kunming.8
Zongming was amazed at the number of tea establishments in Kunming. Though Puer tea consumption had long been more important in Hong Kong, there are no tea markets in Hong Kong that come close to the scale of the markets in Kunming. Most retail or wholesale specialized tea shops in Hong Kong are concentrated in a single commercial district, and there are only around ten shops total. Most Puer tea is consumed cheaply and in large quantities in Hong Kong's numerous yum cha restaurants.9 When Zongming commented on this contrast, I recalled the words of an old tea trader in Hong Kong, who said as he handed me a cup of Puer tea brewed from a big porcelain pot in his office, “Sorry, we Hong Kong people don't drink Puer tea as exquisitely as you Yunnanese.” In other words, he was not using the sort of delicate tea set and sophisticated method of tea infusing that was now popular in both the cities and tea production areas of Yunnan. I was amused by this comment, and I politely replied that Yunnan had learned a lot from Hong Kong about how to drink and store Puer tea. The Pearl River Delta, especially Hong Kong, was a developed economic region, whereas Yunnan had long been known as a lagging and poor area. But whereas Puer tea was routinely and “quietly” consumed in Hong Kong, it was treated in a more sophisticated manner in Yunnan. Zongming's surprise at the number of luxurious teahouses in Kunming echoed the old man's comment, but Hongtu, Lao Li, and I understood that this treatment of tea had become popular in Kunming only since the turn of the twenty-first century.
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