Incorporated into Daily Life
Singapore's Guangzhen Tea Shop has been in business for over 80 years, consistently trading in Liubao tea. Soon after opening, workers doing manual labor, such as construction, began purchasing Liubao tea from the shop. Gradually, the group of female workers, primarily Cantonese Chinese, became the main consumers of Guangzhen Tea Shop, according to its manager, Liu Xiufeng, who said, “In the past, much of our Liubao tea was sold to the ‘Red Turbans.' Even now, their descendants remain our customers.”
Purchase contract for Liubao tea signed in 1973 between Guanghui Feng Tea Shop in Malaysia and the Guangxi Branch Company of the China National Native Products and Animal By-Products Import and Export Corporation in Wuzhou.
Liubao tea samples sent from Hong Kong to Liang Ruisheng Tea and Cigarette Shop in Ipoh, Malaysia, in 1971.
Entering the 20th century, the development of Southeast Asia entered a new phase, with rapid advancements in urban and port construction. Ports in cities like Singapore, Penang, Kuala Lumpur, and Jakarta developed at an increasingly faster pace, and many Chinese workers participated in these developments. The second wave of Chinese workers moving to Southeast Asia starting in the 1920s brought large numbers of Chinese people to various towns and cities in the region to engage in business, work, and settle down, forming expanding Chinese communities. At that time, Liubao tea followed these Chinese people into the towns and into the daily lives of residents.
Twenty years passed quickly, and the use of Liubao tea in the lives of Chinese people in Southeast Asia continued to deepen. Deng Hongzhi, secretary-general of the Malaysia Guangxi Association and a native of Cenxi, Wuzhou, explained that his grandfather migrated from China to Malacca in the 1940s and worked on a rubber plantation. He developed the habit of brewing Liubao tea in aluminum cans every day, which he maintained until his later years.
Taiping Lake in Malaysia is picturesque today, but in the 18th century, it was a massive tin mine.
The outbreak of the Pacific War at the end of 1941 devastated social stability and economic development in Southeast Asia, plunging the local Chinese community into darkness. The market for Liubao tea in Southeast Asia suffered a significant decline. Fortunately, this situation lasted only about ten years.
After 1950, the economy and society in Southeast Asia recovered and developed. Although China's tea purchase and sales policies underwent significant changes, since Liubao tea was classified as a special tea for export and foreign exchange earnings, exports to Southeast Asia were not restricted. The ancient tea ship route accelerated its expansion into Southeast Asia. The amount of Liubao tea purchased in Guangxi for export increased from 510 tons in 1953 to 3,120 tons in 1956.
After the pendulum of time swung into the 1960s, the market for Liubao tea in Southeast Asia continued to change. The sudden loss of the Indonesian market compressed Liubao tea exports to Singapore and Malaysia. However, because Liubao tea had become a part of daily life for residents, demand for Liubao tea in these two regions did not decrease but rather increased.
“In the 1960s and 1970s, snack shops were everywhere on the streets of Singapore. Since Liubao tea was inexpensive, these snack shops would prepare large pots of Liubao tea for customers to drink for free, so the consumption of Liubao tea in Singapore was very high,” said Bai Jinfu, manager of Singapore's Baixinchun Tea Shop. “At that time, many tea shops and traders would stock Liubao tea for sale.”
During this period, the economy in Southeast Asia grew rapidly, and small and large tea restaurants and teahouses sprouted up like mushrooms after rain in Singapore and Malaysia, consuming large amounts of Liubao tea. “Back then, the first-grade tea we imported mainly supplied stores, high-end restaurants, eateries, and grocery stores,” said Liu Weicai, executive director of Malaysia's Guanghui Feng Tea Shop Co., Ltd. In high-end establishments like teahouses and restaurants, higher-grade Liubao tea was used as a premium tea.
Moreover, in Chinese households in Singapore and Malaysia, Liubao tea became a household item alongside basic necessities like firewood, rice, oil, and salt. Apart from tea shops and traders, incense shops, dried seafood stores, and grocery stores also sold Liubao tea. According to Liubao tea enthusiast Cai Yufang from Malacca, ordinary residents' offerings to deities and tea bags used in temple rituals often contained Liubao tea, and She herself received many such tea bags.
At this point, Liubao tea exported from mainland China could no longer meet the demand in Singapore and Malaysia. Hong Kong tea merchants seized the opportunity, importing green raw tea from mainland China or purchasing large-leaf raw tea from Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Indonesia, processing it into Liubao tea for sale in Southeast Asia. These Hong Kong-produced Liubao teas appealed to the tastes of Chinese people in Southeast Asia and became popular for a time. Lower-grade Hong Kong-produced Liubao teas occupied a considerable share of the market in Southeast Asia, to the extent that “large-leaf” became synonymous with Liubao tea in low-end consumption markets like snack shops and small teahouses.
Export Sales Show Signs of Life
After entering the 1980s, the use of Liubao tea in mining areas gradually came to an end. However, the consumption of Liubao tea in Singapore and Malaysia did not sharply decrease. According to the book “Primary Processing of Tea and Initial Evaluation of Raw Tea” published in 1981, at that time, “the Malaysian market consumed 500 to 600 tons of Liubao tea annually.”
Yushenglong Co., Ltd. in Malaysia has always traded in Liubao tea.
Meanwhile, tea companies importing and trading Liubao tea in Singapore and Malaysia were undergoing consolidation. In Singapore, Liubao tea exported from mainland China was mainly handled by Guangzhen Tea Shop and Xiamen Xinju, while Anfaxing and other tea shops mainly imported and traded Hong Kong-produced Liubao tea. In Malaysia, the number of tea companies importing and trading Liubao tea once reached ten, but in the mid-1980s to early 1990s, as the export volume of Liubao tea from mainland China decreased, exports to Malaysia were largely monopolized by five companies: Guanghui Feng, Lianlongtai, Nanlong, Yushengxiang, and Guangfuyuan.
After the 1980s, the tin mining industry in Malaysia declined, and the economic rise in Hong Kong pushed up wages and land prices in the region. Without the support of mining area consumption and constrained by rising production costs in Hong Kong, Hong Kong-produced Liubao tea gradually declined after the 1990s, and Liubao tea produced in mainland China regained dominance in the Singapore and Malaysia markets.
After 2000, the pace of life in Singapore became increasingly fast, and tea bags, instant tea, and other convenient tea beverages became the primary drinks for the local Chinese population, leading to a decline in the export volume of Liubao tea to Singapore. In Malaysia, due to a relatively slower pace of life, the frequency of using Liubao tea among the local Chinese population remained high. In the past decade, the three companies Yushenglong, Guanghui Feng, and Lianlongtai saw increases in the amount of Liubao tea they imported from China.