Tea Utensils

User avatar
teatray
Posts: 259
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2021 4:46 am
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

Tue Dec 28, 2021 4:41 pm

Andrew S wrote:
Tue Dec 28, 2021 3:54 pm
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educated participants in this study, using one’s fingers was considered unhygienic (even with boiling water) and had been replaced by the use of wooden tongs."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):
Image

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

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
Posts: 704
Joined: Sat Jan 30, 2021 8:53 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia

Tue Dec 28, 2021 5:03 pm

@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
User avatar
teatray
Posts: 259
Joined: Sun Dec 12, 2021 4:46 am
Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

Tue Dec 28, 2021 5:14 pm

Andrew S wrote:
Tue Dec 28, 2021 5:03 pm
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
Posts: 83
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2023 2:26 am
Location: Slovakia

Fri Dec 22, 2023 1:14 pm

Hello. My hand made PuErh pick/knife ;)
Attachments
IMG_20231217_072953.jpg
IMG_20231217_072953.jpg (157.27 KiB) Viewed 1034 times
IMG_20231217_073009.jpg
IMG_20231217_073009.jpg (197.62 KiB) Viewed 1034 times
tolean
Posts: 82
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2021 12:13 am

Fri Dec 22, 2023 1:55 pm

pepson wrote:
Fri Dec 22, 2023 1:14 pm
Hello. My hand made PuErh pick/knife ;)
Image
Image
Nice... What is it made of?
pepson
Posts: 83
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2023 2:26 am
Location: Slovakia

Fri Dec 22, 2023 2:06 pm

tolean wrote:
Fri Dec 22, 2023 1:55 pm
pepson wrote:
Fri Dec 22, 2023 1:14 pm
Hello. My hand made PuErh pick/knife ;)
Image
Image
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
Posts: 82
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2021 12:13 am

Sun Dec 24, 2023 7:35 pm

pepson wrote:
Fri Dec 22, 2023 2:06 pm
tolean wrote:
Fri Dec 22, 2023 1:55 pm
pepson wrote:
Fri Dec 22, 2023 1:14 pm
Hello. My hand made PuErh pick/knife ;)
Image
Image
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!
Post Reply