China: Tea Club

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kersjeberg
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Tue Sep 24, 2019 6:46 am

Dear Tea-lovers,

Recently I was consulting a book about teahouses in China, a book called 'Neo-Chinese Style Tea Houses' (published by ArtPower). It is a design book, mainly for architects as it contains project names, style typologies, designers and plenty of photographs of the tea houses. I was confused by something else, however. And maybe this is the appropriate place to ask the question.

In the book I came across a lot of interesting names of the tea-houses, such as:
* Lu Zi Yun Tea Club (in Fuzhou)
* Sunyard Art Club (in Hangzhou)
* Shui Zhu Gong Fu Tea Club (in Fujian)
* Seven Cups of Tea Club (in Liaoning)

What strikes me is the use of the word 'club' in the names of the tea-houses. Translations are always a difficult thing between Chinese and English. (Once I was in a village in China, at a restaurant that said 'Chicken' as the name of the restaurant, but they never served chicken but something else. I found out via my translator that they simply put their Chinese character in a translation machine and 'Chicken' appeared, but it is not what the Chinese character said).

So, my question is quite simple: how do I need to interpret the idea of 'club' in these names. Are they simple 'Google-Translate' translations that translates a Chinese word simply in the english word 'club', but is there a different meaning behind it (e.g. as 'exclusive' or 'we are only serving this or that tea from our region')? Or should I indeed interpret it as a 'club' with subscriptions and a place for members only?

Would be pleased with someone who could enlighten me here.

Kirsten :)
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pedant
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Tue Sep 24, 2019 4:13 pm

Welcome, @kersjeberg!

Is that book in Chinese or English? Wondering which character(s) they're using for "club".
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aet
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Location: Kunming ( China )

Wed Sep 25, 2019 1:56 am

club in China is usually used for bars , pubs. Tea house is the probably the closest translation. There are also the Tea houses where people get together and play cards or mahjong.
kersjeberg
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Thu Sep 26, 2019 11:32 am

Thank you @pedant and @aet for your replies.

@pendant: the book is published in English (original language according to the details), but written by Chinese authors, based in China and published by a Chinese publishing house. It is thus a purely Chinese product, but written in an English language.

@aet: that is an interesting remark, saying that clubs are mostly bars or pubs. Does this implies that it is open for everyone and not members-only?

Great Forum folks! Love the information, learnt already quite a lot!
Kersje!
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aet
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Fri Sep 27, 2019 2:04 am

I can' actually talk for all China, but only for Kunming where I live and have been to few bars ;-)
There is an expression in Chinese " ju le bu " , which is phonetically translation of " club " , not the meaning ( foreign words are translated like that ). This is used for the pubs, bars but also can be used as for the membership clubs, like tennis club, golf club etc. I suppose saying in Chinese " cha ju le bu " not going to be grammatically wrong, but never heard of such a expression. For those purposes words like "quan " - circle or "tuan" - group , are used.
I'm not sure if I exactly understood your aim of getting the answer. "how do I need to interpret the idea of 'club' in these names" ...are you looking for a Chinese expression for Tea Club ( with or without the actual premises ) where membership is required ?
Some shops make those groups out of their customers , where membership is paid and you get some benefits when purchasing their products , free samples, tasting sessions etc. They call it 茶店会员。But it's related to the 茶店 - tea shop . I don't know how non profitable and independent organization set by purely enthusiast would called. Maybe 茶叶团 。 The ones on wechat groups have some long names like 茶源拉祜茶叶交流群...but those are set again with some vendor who is trying to push their products.
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