Lukang tea master shares the family secrets on how to package tea leaves
Lukang tea master shares the family secrets on how to package tea leaves
2022-11-06
We head now to one of Taiwan’s oldest towns, Lukang in Changhua. In this town full of traditional arts and culture, tea is serious business. And at the teahouse of Wu Chao-hsun, a special way of packing tea leaves has been taught to the third generation. His family has been preparing tea for more than 60 years, and they also have four generations of calligraphy expertise.
A tea master pours tea leaves onto white paper, before folding it carefully to form a traditional package. This special method of making “Paper Tea Packages” has been handed down in Changhua’s Lukang Township for 60 years.
Tea master Wu Chao-hsun says that back when there were no plastic bags, dry goods like tea were often packed in paper. At first it was white newspaper, and later, by the ‘70s, they used special paper printed with the shop’s name and seal. The secret to making paper tea packets has now been handed on to the third generation.
Wu Chien-yi
Tea master
If you want to wrap it really beautifully, you need some skill, and it takes time to develop. Folding it is not as easy as it looks, because you need to make it look really nice, and make it feel really presentable. That’s where the difficulty lies.
And that’s not the only skill in the family. They have also been practicing calligraphy for generations. Wu Chao-hsun has now passed the calligraphic tradition onto the fourth generation, opening a calligraphy exhibition center near the teahouse, where the beauty of Chinese characters can be appreciated fully.
Wu Chao-hsun
Tea master and calligrapher
Calligraphy and tea are of one taste. I believe they have a lot of commonalities. That is, we need to take a lot of care, we need to be absorbed in what we’re doing, to make it right, the product or the artwork. It’s not just simply completing the thing. You must want to do it well.
Having been brought up surrounded by tea, Wu is truly a tea expert. He’s handing down both teahouse traditions and the art of Chinese calligraphy, and hopes the love of traditional arts will continue to inspire the next generation too.
鹿港茶行祖傳一甲子 紙包茶葉絕活
2022-11-06
老茶行傳承真絕活，彰化鹿縣港鎮，有一家超過60年的老茶行，傳承了一手「紙包茶葉」的真功夫，只要用白報紙就可以包茶葉，就是因為以前沒有塑膠袋，如今這項絕活也傳給了第三代。
在白報紙的上面倒入茶葉，運用雙手，在手掌集中、壓摺，一下子就把茶葉包好，這就是在彰化鹿港茶行，祖傳一甲子「紙包茶葉」的絕活。
吳肇勳說，因為早期沒有塑膠袋，所以很多乾燥的商品，都是用紙張來包裝，最早期是用白報紙包裝好，最後把店名印章蓋上去，到了1970年代，才開始把印刷好的紙張，拿來做包裝，而「紙包茶葉」這項絕活，現在也傳給了第三代。
[[茶行第三代 吳建毅]]
“實作上的時候是覺得，想要把它包到很漂亮的話，是需要一點點的功夫，也需要一些時間的累積呀，它可能沒有我們看得那麼容易的去摺，因為要把它包得好看，然後又要把它讓它感覺很體面，這個是它的包裝它的難度在這上面”
除了這項絕活有傳承下來，從祖輩傳下來的書法，吳肇勳也已經把它傳承到了第四代，另外也在茶行的附近，開設了書法展覽館，傳承漢字美學。
[[茶行第二代 書法家 吳肇勳]]
“書茶一味，我覺得它們兩個項目有很多的共通性，這是我們要很用心，要投入其中，才能夠把產品做好，把作品做好，不單單只把它做完成，而且要希望把它做好”
從小就在茶香之家長大的吳肇勳，傳承了祖輩的「紙包茶葉」絕活、以及充滿漢字美學的書法，他將這份喜悅跟大家分享，希望能夠和他一起體會也感受，茶香與書法藝術，所渲染出來的芬芳氣息。
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