Tea Utensils

[teatray]

In case it assists, I saw a reference to this in an article that was referred to over here (viewtopic.php?p=16883#p16883):

"Some practices also appear to be changing. In my observation, while shopkeepers and others drinking gongfu tea on pavements often practised tang bei gun bei, among the more highly educated participants in this study, using one’s fingers was considered unhygienic (even with boiling water) and had been replaced by the use of wooden tongs."

Peter d’Abbs, Tea Art as Everyday Practice: Gongfu Tea in Chaoshan, Guangdong, Today (2019, The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology) at 10

Andrew

I think this refers to the tea tongs (茶夾 chá jiā) used for rinsing & moving cups around (with one arm of the tong usually in the cup):


Tang bei gun bei is a kind of rolling warm-up rinse with fingers:


The curious cup holder seems to be for serving the final liquor where you probably don't want to dip the tong arm. I wonder what the Chinese name is and whether it's a relatively recent invention (as part of the "classic" gongfu utensil set--I know the tool itself is quite old, I remember it from when I was a kid and my grandfather used something similar to pull hot jars out of a boiling cauldron).

[Andrew S]

@teatray:yes, you're completely correct, I confused myself.

This is what I had tried to find (from that author's dissertation rather than his published article: https://rune.une.edu.au/web/bitstream/1 ... URCE03.pdf):

"The shift to a more formal politeness implied in the host handing each cup to a guest testifies to continuity as well as change, insofar as it retains the underlying meaning of preparing gongfu tea as a mark of friendliness and respect on the host’s part, but doing so in a world that is changing. Change, moreover, can take many forms. Once – but only once, in a modern tea-house in Shantou that appeared to be cultivating a contemporary ambience of ‘tea art’ – I observed the use of a carved wooden fork, known as a bei cha (杯叉), for conveying tea cups to guests (see Figure 5-10). As with the jiazi, or tongs, referred to above and shown in the same picture, this is clearly designed to ensure that the host does not touch the cups with his or her fingers, thereby perhaps tapping into contemporary understandings of cleanliness, and attempting to attach added elegance to the event." (at page 84)

Andrew

[teatray]

teatray:yes, you're completely correct, I confused myself.

This is what I had tried to find (from that author's dissertation rather than his published article: https://rune.une.edu.au/web/bitstream/1 ... URCE03.pdf):

"The shift to a more formal politeness implied in the host handing each cup to a guest testifies to continuity as well as change, insofar as it retains the underlying meaning of preparing gongfu tea as a mark of friendliness and respect on the host’s part, but doing so in a world that is changing. Change, moreover, can take many forms. Once – but only once, in a modern tea-house in Shantou that appeared to be cultivating a contemporary ambience of ‘tea art’ – I observed the use of a carved wooden fork, known as a bei cha (杯叉), for conveying tea cups to guests (see Figure 5-10). As with the jiazi, or tongs, referred to above and shown in the same picture, this is clearly designed to ensure that the host does not touch the cups with his or her fingers, thereby perhaps tapping into contemporary understandings of cleanliness, and attempting to attach added elegance to the event." (at page 84)

Andrew

Wow, this is exactly what I was hoping to learn & much more, thank you so much! Perhaps it's a 21st century addition then? Here's a video discussing the other 6 tools in the standard set, by someone who seems to have completed a 6-month Gong Fu Cha training in China:

[pepson]

Hello. My hand made PuErh pick/knife

[tolean]

Hello. My hand made PuErh pick/knife

Nice... What is it made of?

[pepson]

Hello. My hand made PuErh pick/knife

Nice... What is it made of?

It used to be old (over 50 years) wood chisel.
I needed to shorten handle and blade.
Handle is made of roe deer's antler

[tolean]

Hello. My hand made PuErh pick/knife

Nice... What is it made of?

It used to be old (over 50 years) wood chisel.
I needed to shorten handle and blade.
Handle is made of roe deer's antler

Nice! Thanks!

[wildisthewind]

Victoria thanks and also thanks for pinning it! I got a few more wood pieces waiting to reveal their shape...

if one were to try to invent these shapes the sea and wood created on purpose, one would surely fail - it never ceases to amaze me.

Below a set made by a wood artisan in Taiwan, I’ve posted it before.

DailyTX I’m hesitant to purposely seek out any local wood, illegal logging is rampant and however small, I do not want to add incentive to this practice. After decades of colonial rampage, not much is left of the grand Formosan forests...

Way old post, I know, but who is this woodworker? I'd love to check out some of their other stuff.

[Bok]

Victoria thanks and also thanks for pinning it! I got a few more wood pieces waiting to reveal their shape...

if one were to try to invent these shapes the sea and wood created on purpose, one would surely fail - it never ceases to amaze me.

Below a set made by a wood artisan in Taiwan, I’ve posted it before.

DailyTX I’m hesitant to purposely seek out any local wood, illegal logging is rampant and however small, I do not want to add incentive to this practice. After decades of colonial rampage, not much is left of the grand Formosan forests...

Way old post, I know, but who is this woodworker? I'd love to check out some of their other stuff.

It is an old gent who does not have any online presence I am afraid, and does not speak any English either... can only go and see him in person in Tainan. Does not have a shop either, just his home, which is also a pretty cool space, a house and garden all built by himself, overgrown and with a few tea-making corners – and lots of mosquitoes

[wildisthewind]

Oh that's too bad. So many true craftspeople are inaccessible to a non-local audience. I don't blame them, but it's a shame how much of what is accessible is mass-market or amateurish.

If you ever decided to purchase some of his pieces for sale to the global community, I'd love to buy one.