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The Four and a half cup tea club
Half-day Tea course at the HKU (26July2004)
The Club was invited to give a half-day course on Chinese tea and culture at the Hong Kong University as part of their General Education program. The theme was Chinese tea and Chinese culture. This was very different from the event we participated in 2003. Here, the course was conducted in a large classroom rather than an open area. The goal was to introduce students to tea from knowledge to practice. There were 48 students enrolled.
We had to plan the whole program from start to end - venue, course content, form of instruction, equipment. With the help of the HKU, we came up with a 4-hour program which started with talks on the original of tea and its culture. It then followed by talks on the proper use of different 'utensils' and how they can help in the process of tea brewing. The way to brew Green tea and Puerh was explained and gracefully demonstrated by Yeung Kim Wo and Kitty's daughter, Yum Tze Lun. Then the inevitable guided show of the way to differentiate the 6 categories of tea by actual sight, touch, smell and taste. This was thoroughly enjoyed and welcomed by the students. Something of a hands on experience. When the students came back from a 10-minute break, they were dying to try out the brewing themselves. We tried to give everyone a chance to try out their skill, closely guided and monitored by instructors. The course was over-run by at least 30 minutes when it reached the Q&A session. Nobody wanted to leave but we were reminded that the workers had to lock up the hall.
Preparation started 3 months before the course started. Trips were made to ShenZhen to get the necessary things. We had to get the tea for the demonstration purpose, for the students to practice and for the student to take home and carry on practicing. There were gifts, tea cups, brewing cups, towels, .... too many to mentioned. No less than 4 meetings were held to make sure that everybody knew what he was responsible for. Things were planned out in great details including laying out miniature chairs and tables on scaled cut outs. And, oh, I forgot, Vimie Lung was the person in charge of the whole event. It was not easy and she did a great job. The Club and its close friends turned up in full force - 19 altogether. The day went well and we had a wonderful time.
I hope that the students enjoyed it too. I do not want to write too much. Some of the photos say it all. Please feel free to download them and if there is anything we could do, please contact us at the email below. Each of the original photo was more tham 1Mbyte in size, so please email me if you want the originals. I will try and email them to you.
tea45a@yahoo.com.hk
Hau Sau Fat
Chairman
