中国文化Unit2 TextC.pptVIP

CHINESE CULTURE Unit2 Chinese Food and Tea Culture Two friends are discussing the customs of tea-drinking in China. A:In classical novels, if someone drinks tea out of a big cup to quench his thirst, the word used to illustrate this ation is drink, like a cow drinking water.Scholars would use fine cups to drink tea and the word to use is savor. B: Tea drinking is a very sophisticated pastime. It starts with the environment. In the past, the drinking should take place in a setting wherespring water runs on marbles or in a monastery in misty spring or in the woods during sunset. Nowadays, in order to recreate such an ambience,tea houses are always decorated with traditional paintings, calligraphy and furniture, with a girl in trational costume playing the gu zheng, a traditional Chinese musical instrument. A: How about the tea seats? B: In the old days, people used iron kettles to boil water. Tea was plasce in a paper bag. Porcelain cups were used for drinking. The water came from melted snow which was collected from plum blossom trees the previous winter and stored underground in a jar. Today people use different tea sets but the most popular ones are the pots made in Yixing. No one collects snow any more because of pollution so people use bottled water instead. A: Is there any difference in the tea? B: Tea has categories: black tea, green tea, oolong tea and compressd tea. The first three types of tea are processed using similar methods, but Pu er tea, the most prestigious compressed tea, uses a totally different method. It contains a kind of fungus which is believed to be healthy. The fungus will ferment on its own afer the tea is processed. This is why expensive Pu er tea is always quite old. A: Is tea drinking very expensive? B: Yes, it is a commercialized hobby now. This is different from the way ancient scholars enjoyed themselves, by savoring tea among bamboos or in the moonlinght. People nowadays talk business in expensively-decorated tea houses. Or