The phantasm of tao: modern chinese tea culture

The articlereflects the modern state of the Chinese tea culture and the place of the traditional in it. The transformation and social change in Chinaafter the end of cultural revolution allowed a new concept of cultural policy to emerge: traditional culture was no longer considered tobe an obstacle on the way of transformation, but was claimed to be the basis of the modernisation and building of the new China. Thesearch for new identity then brought Chinese people to the sphere of the traditional, which was strange and even exotic for them. Thetraditional culture itself was to be translated into the language of the new social discourse. In this case the social function of traditionalculture dominated the value of the culture as it is. Since the beginning of the period of the policy of reform and opening in early 1980stea merchants and scholars recognized the rich traditional background in the Chinese tea culture, which was promoted actively with thesupport on the official level. The way to achieve the social utopia was seen in the traditional Chinese tea culture. During the early periodof development of the Chinese tea culture in Early Middle Ages it was developing under the influence of the school of Metaphysics,famous for practicing pure conversations (qing tan). Later, during the Middle Ages, poets, scholars, and Buddhist priests had a certainimpact on it. So from the very beginning the Chinese tea culture developed a deep connection with the traditional Chinese thought andart. That is why the phantasm of Tao as nostalgia for something larger, transcendent, has never left the Chinese tea culture and inmodern society with its thirty years of revolution struggle and drastic social change this nostalgia was may be even stronger than everbefore. The refined aestheticism of tea ceremony lets the tea lover feel a part of the ancient tradition, share the common culturalheritage, which in this case manifests in certain physical moves. In fact, it was and still is the way to pose as a lover of culture, due tothe implicit connection between the refined taste of tea and the Chinese history. The search for the traditional in the Chinese tea culture,which is said to be mostly the interpretation of traditional codes into the understandable symbols, has led to the real invention of the newtraditional tea culture. The modern development of the tea culture reflects the quest for new national identity and therefore it isimportant to consider this topic in the scientific discourse.

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