Duyun Maojian tea is a century-old prestigious Chinese brand. Its unique tea-growing environment and production techniques endow it with an elegant appearance characterized by tightly curled strands, Silver tips, and a green luster, as well as qualities such as a lasting fresh fragrance and a sweet aftertaste. From winning the gold medal at the Panama World's Fair in 1915 to being listed as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2022, Duyun Maojian tea has garnered over 100 awards from international and national competitions over more than a century.
Photographed by Zhao Yunchuan
To further promote the protection and inheritance of the intangible cultural heritage project “Skills for Producing Duyun Maojian Tea,” Duyun City adheres to the protection policy of “prioritizing protection, prioritizing rescue, rational utilization, and development through inheritance.” The city upholds the principles of authenticity and integrity in its protection efforts. It continually improves the institutional mechanisms for building a team of representative inheritors of intangible cultural heritage and considers strengthening this team as a critical link and core element in inheriting the skills for producing Duyun Maojian tea.
Focusing on skill protection to ensure inheritance
In terms of building the inheritor team, Duyun City actively strengthens the institutional mechanisms for the inheritance of intangible cultural heritage, encouraging master-apprentice relationships to protect and develop the inheritor team systematically and conduct protection and inheritance work comprehensively.
By February 2024, Duyun City had a total of 81 representative inheritors of the national intangible cultural heritage project “Skills for Producing Duyun Maojian Tea.” Among them, there was 1 national-level inheritor, 2 provincial-level inheritors, 15 prefectural-level inheritors, and 63 municipal-level inheritors, driving over 80,000 people in the city to engage in the production and processing of premium teas.
Focusing on skill enhancement through training
In terms of skill training, with the “Duyun Maojian Technician Training” program as a significant vehicle, the city focuses on key groups such as government officials, general staff members, Village group officials, tea enterprises, and tea farmers. By organizing inheritor training classes, establishing study-practice bases, and fostering cooperation among government, schools, and enterprises, the city attracts more people to join the ranks of those inheriting the skills for producing Duyun Maojian tea.
By May 2024, a total of 22 Duyun Maojian technician training sessions were conducted, cumulatively training 876 individuals. Of these, 662 obtained qualifications as tea makers, tea artists, and tea evaluators, comprehensively enhancing the technical level of tea industry processing.
Focusing on skill inheritance by exploring its depth
Deeply exploring the cultural connotations of tea is an effective means and important carrier for inheriting the skills for producing Duyun Maojian tea. Duyun City, centered around the development of Maojian Tea culture, promotes tourism through tea and vice versa. Relying on the core area of the Loushike tea base, the city develops mountainous characteristic tourism with a focus on tea-tourism integration, effectively stimulating vitality and driving the development of tea culture tourism. Duyun City's “Cloudy Sea and Heartfelt Maojian Journey” was selected as one of the 20 tea country tourism routes nationwide.
The Artistic Performance “Enamored by Maojian”
Simultaneously, using Duyun Maojian tea as a medium, the city created the ethnic dance-poem “Enamored by Maojian.” Through dance and song, the performance promotes ethnic culture, tells the story of Duyun Maojian, builds the Duyun Maojian brand, and enhances the quality and depth of “tourism + intangible cultural heritage.”
Focusing on skill development through publicity
In recent years, Duyun City has emphasized conducting activities such as tea frying, drinking tea, and tea tasting during daily life, tea harvesting festivals, and tea gatherings. These activities have further explored and enriched the unique customs and culture of Duyun Maojian tea, passing them down from generation to generation. They have become vivid testimonies to inter-ethnic exchanges and have played a crucial role in integrating tea culture into the lives of ordinary people, achieving the effect of promoting the protection and inheritance of Duyun Maojian tea production skills.
Representative inheritors at all levels also actively participate in various activities, playing roles in promoting, displaying, spreading, and inheriting the “Skills for Producing Duyun Maojian Tea” project. Through regularly and continuously holding traditional ethnic festivals such as “April Eighth,” “June Sixth,” and “Water Ethnicity's End Festival,” they provide seasonal and congregational platforms for showcasing the skills involved in making Duyun Maojian tea. Additionally, by encouraging representative inheritors at all levels to participate in various tea-making competitions, tea competitions, displays, and other activities, the skills of the inheritor community are enhanced, and awareness of intangible cultural heritage inheritance is expanded, fully leveraging the role of inheritors in promoting and protecting the skills.
Author: Gao Lu