A comparison on tea culture between China and the UK
Abstract
Tea culture plays an important role in both Chinese society and British society. This essay is going to reveal the relationships between tea and social culture of both China and Britain. What’s more, this essay will focuses on the differences between Chinese culture and British culture through the discussion of tea culture. This essay is going to reveal the relationships between tea and social class in both China and Britain. More over, the essay will compare Chinese tea etiquette with British tea etiquette to show the differences between them. At last, this essay will talk about the relationship between tea and people’s lifestyle.
Key words: tea;  culture;  society
Introduction
The mystery of culture can often be seen through particular social activities. Drinking tea is an important social activity in both China and Britain, so tea provides us a window to view the
differences between Chinese culture and British culture. Ni Wang (2011), in the essay A Comparison of Chinese and British Tea Culture, pointed out that “With its long history in each of the two nations, tea has respectively developed a unique culture in them”. So tea culture of these two countries is a topic that deserves deeply discussion.
The essay will mainly discuss in three parts: tea and social class, tea and social etiquette, tea and people’s lifestyle. When discussing tea and social class, an attention will be paid to the relationship of tea and British upper social class. As Laura Johansson pointed out in the essay A Nice Cup of Tea-Tea Culture in England, “England still is a class society, even the simple everyday habit of drinking tea can be a class indicator”(Laura Johansson, 2009). What’s more, the discussion of tea and social etiquette will show the differences between Chinese tea etiquette and British tea etiquette.
Tea and social class
The idea of “class” plays a very important role in British society. It’s true to a certain extent that social class influences what social activities people take part in. Drinking tea at first wa
s popular among royal families as a fashionable social activity in Britain. It was Charles II’s Portuguese queen, Catherine of Braganza who first introduced drinking tea at court in 1662. After that, the activity of drinking tea became more and more popular among upper social class especially among the royal family. That’s why drinking tea was viewed as a symbol of social identities in Britain. Drinking tea was used by the upper class to show their noble dignity to others. In the movie “The Queen”, there was a scene that even the queen was faced with great media pressure on Diana’s death, the queen still kept her dignity and drank afternoon tea with her husband. In the movie “Pride and Prejudice”, there were some scenes that the families from upper class got together and drank tea.
The fashion of drinking tea sprayed quickly and it became popular among all social classes in Britain after 1880s. But the differences between different social classes were clear during the activity of drinking tea. In the movie “Howards End”, there were three families from different social classes. The tea cups they used and the way they drank afternoon tea were quite different. The Wilcoxes were rich capitalists so they used expensive tea cups and drank afternoon tea in a beautiful garden. However, the Basts were in low social class and t
hey could only have afternoon tea in their small house at a small table. In this movie, the scenes of drinking tea reflected the social differences between different classes. tabletime
However, different with the UK, drinking tea wasn’t viewed as a symbol of upper social class in China. In ancient China, drinking tea was very popular among poets. Some poets were poor and in low social class, but they were fond of drinking tea. Even in a poor family, the host would provide tea to the guests as a way to welcome the guests. In ancient times, the kinds of tea people drank reflected their social classes. The royal family controlled the nation so they could drink the most expensive and special kind of tea.
Tea etiquette
In the UK, tea was related with social etiquette in the 18th and 19th century because at that time tea was very popular among upper social class. The people from upper social class would dress very formally if they go to other people’s house to join afternoon tea. The gentlemen and the ladies from upper social class would try to behave well during drinking afternoon tea. In China, tea also has important relationship with etiquette. But Chinese tea
etiquette focuses more on how people drink the tea. The traditional way of drinking tea includes several steps. If a person drinks tea with the right steps rather than directly pouring the tea into mouth, then people may think that he behaves well. The traditional way of drinking tea is smelling at first and then sucking a little to taste.
There are some differences between China and Britain in the manners of serving tea. In the UK, the most important process of serving tea is setting a pretty table with clean and beautiful tea cups and saucers on the table. If the family has a garden, the housewives will often set the table outdoors. In the movie “Howards End”, there was a scene that the Wilcoxes set a pretty table in their beautiful garden and had afternoon tea together. And the host will also put cakes, cookies and small sandwiches on appropriate size plates to make them look more beautiful. However, in the serving of Chinese tea, the most important process is making tea rather setting a table. The traditional process of making Chinese tea is very complicated, so it’s not easy to serve Chinese tea well if a person knows little about the process of making Chinese tea.

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