Chinese tea processing listed on Intangible Cultural Heritage

The item “Traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China” was listed on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage on November 29th.

China now has 43 items on the intangible cultural heritage list, continuing to be the most enlisted country in the world.

Below is the comments from UNESCO’s evaluation:

The traditional tea processing techniques and associated social practices in China consist of knowledge, skills, and practices concerning the management of tea plantations, picking of tea leaves, manual processing, drinking, and sharing of tea.

Since ancient times, Chinese people have been planting, picking, making and drinking tea. Tea producers have developed six categories of tea: green, yellow, dark, white, oolong and black teas. Together with reprocessed teas, such as flower-scented teas, there are over 2,000 tea products in China.

Tea is ubiquitous in Chinese people’s daily life, as steeped or boiled tea is served in families, workplaces, tea houses, restaurants and temples, to name a few. It is also an important part of socialization and ceremonies such as weddings and sacrifices, UNESCO added.