On June 1st, 2011, Prof. Weihong Yan, the Director of the Confucius Institute at Pfeifer University, delivered a lecture named “Chinese Tea Culture and Chinese Teapot Art” to the Grade 4 Elementary Chinese Program students at the Smith Academy of International Language. Smith Academy is home to one of the Confucius Classrooms connected to the Confucius Institute at Pfeiffer University.

In the United States, tea is very popular and many adults are familiar with tea culture. Comparatively, many children are not aware of Chinese tea culture. However, this fact does not indicate they will not like drinking tea. American children can also love Chinese tea culture as long as we promote it in proper way. Prof. Yan took every cross-cultural and educational aspect into consideration to find out the best starting point to arouse the interests of the American elementary students in Chinese tea culture.

The lecture was comprised of two parts which included an introduction as well as a demonstration of Chinese tea and proper tea drinking etiquette. At the beginning of the lecture, Prof. Yan introduced Chinese tea culture and teapot art to the students. The teapot is the one of the essential tools for tea drinking and is also a highly accessible form of visual art for American adults and children. Prof. So Weihong Yan started with the visual materials, such as pictures and videos, in which elementary students are very interested. He also chose the image of Kungfu Panda loved by all the American children to lead the questions in his slide show. Kung fu Panda asked the students several questions about tea culture, such as “What is Chinese tea culture? What does Chinese tea benefit people? When Did Chinese start to Drink Tea? Where do Chinese people drink tea? What is Chinese famous Tea? What is the most famous teapot in China and where?” These questions helped students to understand Chinese tea culture step by step.

Pic1: Weihong Yan, the Director of Confucius Institute at Pfeiffer University was giving the Chinese tea culture lecture and the students were concentrating it.

Pic2: Kungfu panda asked one question ”what does Chinese tea benefit people?”

Prof. Yan showed many pictures of various beautiful, delicate and elegant teapots, which greatly captured the students’ attention. The students especially enjoyed the photos of a precious teapot from the Qianlong Period and were astonished at the world’s smallest teapot created by 73 year old Chinese renowned pottery master, Wu Ruishen. It is said that Yixing teapot is the most valuable treasures in the world. Prof. Yan particularly introduced special Yixing Clay Teapot to the students. In addition, he also gave them a brief introduction of several famous Chinese tea types.

The Chinese tea culture introduction was followed by a tea making demonstration and tea tasting. Prof. Yan explained to the students how Chinese people drink tea. When it was time for the tea tasting, the students were very excited and rushed to be the first. Prof. Yan made a top grade Yixing black tea for students, because drinking black tea is an European tradition familiar to most Americans. With the soft background music, the students first smelled the tea fragrance, then sipped the tea and slowly enjoyed each taste under the guidance of Prof. Yan. Almost all the students loved the aroma and taste of the black tea. Many of them wanted to have a second, even a third cup. After the lecture, several students still eagerly asked to have one more cup.

Pic4: Students were waiting for tasting the Chinese black tea one by one.

Pic5: The little boys tasted Chinese tea.

Pic6: All the students were taking the picture happily with Weihong Yan after the lecture.

Ms. Shoufen Chen, the head teacher of the class, stated that all of her students loved the Chinese tea cultural lecture. Each of the students later wrote a paper about the Chinese tea culture experience from which the students can benefit a lot. In addition, Ms. Chen hoped Prof. Yan would hold more Chinese tea culture lectures and tea tasting demonstrations for the entire Smith Academy faculty and other classes in the future.