Puer Tea: Ancient Caravans and Urban Chic

by Jinghong Zhang, K. Sivaramakrishnan (Editor)

Overview

Puer tea has been grown for centuries in the “Six Great Tea Mountains” of Yunnan Province, and in imperial China it was a prized commodity, traded to Tibet by horse or mule caravan via the so-called Tea Horse Road and presented as tribute to the emperor in Beijing. In the 1990s, as the tea’s noble lineage and unique process of aging and fermentation were rediscovered, it achieved cult status both in China and internationally. The tea became a favorite among urban connoisseurs who analyzed it in language comparable to that used in wine appreciation and paid skyrocketing prices. In 2007, however, local events and the international economic crisis caused the Puer market to collapse.

Puer Tea traces the rise, climax, and crash of this phenomenon. With ethnographic attention to the spaces in which Puer tea is harvested, processed, traded, and consumed, anthropologist Jinghong Zhang constructs a vivid account of the transformation of a cottage handicraft into a major industry—with predictable risks and unexpected consequences.

Watch the associated videos at https://archive.org/details/PUERTEADVD1.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295804873
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	12/01/2013
Series:	Culture, Place, and Nature
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	272
File size:	8 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Jinghong Zhang is a lecturer at Yunnan University.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Transliteration, Names, and Measures

Maps

Introduction

Spring

1. “The Authentic Tea Mountain Yiwu”

2. Tensions under the Bloom

Summer

3. “Yunnan: The Home of Puer Tea” 81

4. Heating Up and Cooling Down 106

Autumn

5. Puer Tea with Remorse

6. Transformed Qualities

Winter

7. Tea Tasting and Counter–Tea Tasting

8. Interactive Authenticities

Conclusion: An Alternative Authenticity

Appendix 1: Puer Tea Categories and Production Process

Appendix 2: Supplementary Videos



Notes

Glossary

References

Index

What People are Saying About This

Steven D. Owyoung

"This is an engrossing study of the Puer tea industry and the many cultural spheres that surround it. It will be of keen interest to the Western tea trade as well as its historians, connoisseurs, and enthusiasts. Tea publications rarely, if ever, discuss the complex relationships that quite literally bring tea to the table and never is the anatomy of tea dissected in such a wide ranging, thorough, and engaging way."

Editorial Reviews

"This fine book has so much to tell us about the political economy of Puer tea over different periods of time and with links to Hong Kong, Taiwan and beyond…[I]nformative and well-written."

Australian Journal of Anthropology - Tan Chee Beng

"An admirably coherent analysis of the complex social relationships that shaped the Pu'er market. . . . and a fine addition to the literature on the cultural biographies of commodities. . . . Recommended for the teaching of political economy, cultural economy, Chinese social transformation, and regional development studies."

China Quarterly

"[R]eflective of the deep socioeconomic and historical constructions of value in Puer tea shaped across many centuries, which Zhang captures in this intriguing monograph. Tracing the popularization of Puer tea in the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries, from its rise, peak, and eventual crash in 2007, this book is an insightful examination of the world of Puer tea. . . . [T]his ethnography presents a unique contribution to those interested in commodities, exchange, authenticity, and symbolic value. . . . The strength of this book lies in is rich ethnographic detail, in terms of privileging (and problematizing) the voices of the many actors involved in Puer tea, in addition to providing rich visual material to illuminate the complicated processes of producing, cultivating, and marketing Puer tea."

Food, Culture and Society - Willa Zhen

"A wealth of valuable information, both historical and anecdotal….should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in the subject of Puer tea."

Two Dog Tea Blog

[R]eflective of the deep socioeconomic and historical constructions of value in Puer tea shaped across many centuries, which Zhang captures in this intriguing monograph. Tracing the popularization of Puer tea in the late-twentieth and early-twenty-first centuries, from its rise, peak, and eventual crash in 2007, this book is an insightful examination of the world of Puer tea. . . . [T]his ethnography presents a unique contribution to those interested in commodities, exchange, authenticity, and symbolic value. . . . The strength of this book lies in is rich ethnographic detail, in terms of privileging (and problematizing) the voices of the many actors involved in Puer tea, in addition to providing rich visual material to illuminate the complicated processes of producing, cultivating, and marketing Puer tea.

--Willa Zhen "Food, Culture and Society"

A wealth of valuable information, both historical and anecdotal....should be mandatory reading for anyone interested in the subject of Puer tea.

-- "Two Dog Tea Blog"

An admirably coherent analysis of the complex social relationships that shaped the Pu'er market. . . . and a fine addition to the literature on the cultural biographies of commodities. . . . Recommended for the teaching of political economy, cultural economy, Chinese social transformation, and regional development studies.

-- "China Quarterly"

This fine book has so much to tell us about the political economy of Puer tea over different periods of time and with links to Hong Kong, Taiwan and beyond...[I]nformative and well-written.

--Tan Chee Beng "Australian Journal of Anthropology"

From the Publisher