Appreciating Oolong and Pu’er Teas

Australian Centre on China in the World, The Australian National University

Date: Wednesday 8 July 2020
Time: 12:15-1:00pm AEST
This online event is free and open to the public, registration via Eventbrite is essential.
REGISTER NOW

Chinese tea varieties are gaining prominence in specialty cafes across Australia. Among the vast array of Chinese teas, Oolong and Pu’er teas are more widely known. Join us over a cuppa to learn about Chinese tea… online!

Benjamin Penny, former director of the Australian Centre on China in the World, will be hosting a tasting of a Taiwanese Oolong made in a traditional style and a “ripe” Pu’er tea from Yunnan. Joining Ben will be two tea masters: award-winning tea roaster Master Lu Lizhen of the Chen Wey teahouse in Yingge, New Taipei City, who made the Oolong tea, and Dr Zhang Jinghong from Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, an expert on Pu’er teas. The tea masters will discuss the origins and flavour profile of the two types of tea as well as Chinese tea cultures in Taiwan and China.

About the speakers

Master Lu Lizhen 呂禮臻 is the President of the World Tea Union and runs the Chen Wey Teahouse in New Taipei City. He has been in the tea business since 1979 and works closely with tea farmers to roast his award-wining and eco-friendly Oolong teas. Master Lu has sold his tea in Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, Japan and Germany. He is also known for revitalising the pu’er tea craft and production in Yiwu region, China since 1994. He is passionate about bringing tea to people and preserving traditional Chinese tea craft.

Dr Zhang Jinghong 张静红 is an anthropologist with a research focus on food and visual anthropology. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Australian Centre on China in the World before commencing her current position at the Southern University of Science and Technology in China in 2017. Her first monograph Pu’er Tea: Ancient Caravans and Urban Chic was awarded the Best Book in Social Sciences from 2013 to 2015 by the International Convention of Asian Scholars (ICAS).

Benjamin Penny is a historian of religions in China who has worked on medieval China, the nineteenth century and contemporary times. His most recent book is The Religion of Falun Gong (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012) and he is currently working on a monograph concerning expatriate scholarship in Shanghai after the first Opium War, as well as co-editing East Asian History. He was the CIW Director from 2016–2018.


Event contact:
Australian Centre on China in the World, ANU
ciw@anu.edu.au