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Taiwanese Tea Travels Overseas – Tea Family Descendants Regain their Glory (TAIPEI QUARTERLY 2018 WINTER Vol.14)

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Post date:2018-12-11

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Taiwanese Tea Travels Overseas –
Tea Family Descendants Regain their Glory

 

Article: Chen Wanyu

Photos: Lin Weikai

TAIPEI WINTER 2018 Vol.14 Taiwanese Tea Travels Overseas – Tea Family Descendants Regain their Glory

By about 150 years ago, in the late Qing dynasty, the Dadaocheng tea trade had reached its peak. “March to October was the busy period for roasting spring, summer and fall tea. One could smell the aroma of tea and flowers on every street, making Dadaocheng the most perfumed neighborhood of all! Women tea sifters strolled along the streets…. One can just picture the busy tea production scene back then from such descriptions as this one in the book, Taipei Citys Road and Street History (台北市路街史).

In 1866, British businessman, John Dodd brought Anxi tea plants to Taiwan from China. He applied methods that were similar to the contractual farming system of today, in which farmers were given loans and encouraged to plant and produce tea. In 1869, he exported a shipment of boxes from Tamsui Port to New York with “Formosa Oolong Tea” printed on them. From that day on, Formosa Tea made a name for itself around the world, and everyone knew how delicious it tasted.

TAIPEI WINTER 2018 Vol.14 Taiwanese Tea Travels Overseas – Tea Family Descendants Regain their GloryTo deal with industrial transformation, Wang Tea keeps adjusting brand packaging and product design.
 

The Heyday of Booming Export Trade

After that, foreign enterprises set up business in Taipei; even tea merchants from Fu Jian Province, China came to trade in tea. In its heyday, the trade saw 250-plus tea stores and foreign investment companies in the neighborhood covering Chongqing North Road (重慶北路), Yanping North Road (延平北路), Dihua Street and Guide Street (貴德街). Dadaocheng soon became the richest district in Taiwan.

“Reflecting a change in era, the hundred-year-old tea store has experienced multiple transformations. But, with creative packaging and design and advanced promotion, it aims to make people love the culture of tea again.”

 

Founded in 1890, Wang Tea (有記名茶) is one extant store that actually witnessed those glorious days. It stills does business at the old spot on Chongqing North Road. The father of fifth-generation owner Wang Shengjun (王聖鈞) told him that his great grandfather would often stand on the pier at Dadaocheng supervising as tea boxes were loaded onto the ships. One year, they loaded 500,000 Taiwanese catties of Baozhong tea! At a very young age, his father asked the old man, “Five-hundred thousand catties of tea, exactly how big is that?” Great grandfather laughed and said, “Well, that’s enough for us Taipeiers to drink for a whole year.” This conversation shows how well the tea export business did back then.
 

Looking at Historical Buildings to Imagine Old Time Glory

Another tea store that had such a heyday was Sin Hong Choon Trade Co. (新芳春茶行). It was the biggest tea company of all in the 1930s, and in 2016, it reappeared as an exhibit hall and met its public again. Its docent, Chen Deen (陳得恩), knows everything about Sin Hong Choon. He says that the first generation of the Wang family settled in Dadaocheng in 1913. Old Wang started work as tea taster, and in six years’ time had saved enough to open his own store, which he named Sin Hong Choon. It was built with three bays facing the street, which was the style favored by over 80% of the stores along Minsheng West Road (民生西路) between Chongqing North Road and Yanping North Road.Tea vendors carried bags that weighed 60 catties each in and out of those stores all day long.

TAIPEI WINTER 2018 Vol.14 Taiwanese Tea Travels Overseas – Tea Family Descendants Regain their Glory
Sin Hong Choon has been transformed into an exhibit hall for tea culture.

 

Sin Hong Choon is situated in an eighty-year-old three-story house. It was originally constructed to be a western-style residence that could be used for commercial purposes too. Luckily, it is so well-preserved that people nowadays can see how interior space is arranged and imagine the wealthy life a typical Dadaocheng tea merchant once had. One will learn from the exhibit that destinations for tea export included Amoy in China, London, Amsterdam, Casablanca and Thailand. Oolong tea was sold in Europe and America, and Baozhong tea in the South Seas. Taiwanese tea had spread its flavor and aroma all over the world!

 

As Exports Decline, the Tea Trade Focuses on Domestic Sales

After restoration from colonial rule, Taiwan, which had been badly damaged by the war, saw its overseas tea business decline substantially, with exports shrinking day by day. Many old tea stores had made their fortunes through exporting, but now couldn’t survive any longer. For example, Jinji Tea Co. (錦記茶行), founded by Chen Tian-Lai (陳天來), one of Dadaochengs most active tea merchants, closed up shop in 1952.

By the 1970s, Taiwan had gone through an industrial transformation, an increase in value of the New Taiwan Dollar, a shortage in tea production labor, and rising wages in the country overall. Tea production costs in Taiwan had increased so much that the country lost its competitiveness in the export market. Tea manufacturers in Dadaocheng gradually moved away to places with cheaper labor costs. The end came when the once-prosperous Sin Hong Choon closed its doors in 2004.

“In its exhibit hall, Sin Hong Choon preserves and promotes tea culture, hoping it will stay in people’s minds forever.”


Wang recalls that there was a time when his family was doing both domestic and export tea business, but hardly any customers were dropping by the store. Around 2003, business started to get better, and about the same time, the economy turned prosperous again. More and more people were demanding a superb cup of tea, and the promotion of tea culture was becoming more widespread. So, Taiwanese consumers started paying attention to tea’s quality. Domestic sales became an opportunity for the old tea stores to regain their former glory. Wang’s father decided to change direction, focus on domestic sales, and reestablish a well-known brand name.

The New Generation Pursues a Path of Cultural Creation

Wang Tea upgraded their seventy-year-old-plus factory, kept the production room’s original look, and renovated the whole place into a small tea museum. They hired docents to give tours and tell people about such things as the different types of tea, the production process and the significance of preserved documentation. All of this allows visitors to get to know tea culture better.

In 2012, Wang took over the family business and brought new energy and creativity with him. For example, he started producing teabags for the younger set, gave the flagship tea a new name, and cleverly combined the tea’s infusion process, its unique flavor, and life experience to create a culturally creative product.

Today, there are fewer than ten tea stores with a history like Wang’s left in Dadaocheng. But a change in times won’t stop these old emporia from moving forward. New generations will once again set sail from the port at Tamsui riverside, Dadaocheng!

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