*Chinese Herbal Tea

101.*Chinese Herbal Tea

Nominating Unit: Guangdong Food Industry Association, Home Affairs Bureau of Hongkong Special Administrative Region, Bureau of Culture of Macao Special Administrative Region.

Based on the local climate, environmental characteristics and Chinese medical science of keeping in good health, people in Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macao have produced Chinese Herbal Tea with Chinese herbal medicine as materials in the long process of preventing diseases and keeping fi t. Chinese Herbal Tea is a daily beverage, which has effects like clearing away heat and toxic material, thirsty-quenching, dispelling internal heat etc. It has its own terms that guide people to drink with no dosage limit and no need of guidance from the doctor.

In 306 AD, a medicine master Ge Hong in the Eastern Jin Dynasty came to Lingnan and made up his mind to work over various medicines for Epidemic Febrile Disease because this communicable subtropical disease was prevailing in Lingnan. The medical works left by Ge Hong and abundant folk methods of preventing and curing diseases concluded by subsequent physicians of Lingnan Wen faction have together produced the Lingnan style Chinese Herbal Tea with its formula and terms passing on from generation to generation. The historical allusions and folk stories about Chinese Herbal Tea have long spread far and wide in Lingnan and abroad. For hundreds of years, the Chinese Herbal Tea shops in Guangdong Province, Hong Kong and Macao have formed a unique scenery that represents Lingnan culture.(https://www.daowen.com)

The technique of blending Chinese Herbal Tea has been handed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years. During the the Cultural Revolution, the culture of Chinese Herbal Tea was also seriously damaged. Not only Chinese Herbal Tea shops were shut down, the related making tools, historic sites, historical remains and materials as well as photos were also destructed and left very few. However, Chinese Herbal Tea is popular all the while in Hong Kong and Macao. The 54 formulas from the 16 Chinese Herbal Tea brands (Wong Lo Kat, Shang Qingyin, Jiansheng Tang, Deng’s Chinese Herbal Tea, Baiyun Mountain, Huang Zhenlong, Xu Qixiu, Chunhe Tang, Golden Calabash, Xingqun, Runxin Tang, Shaxi, Li’s Chinese Herbal Tea, Qingxin Tang, Xinlin Chun, Baoqing Tang) and the culture they formed have received extensive recognition among common people.

The long history and extensive popularity of Chinese Herbal Tea culture, the efficiency of workers, and the strict way of passing on as well as the immense subsequent effect make the Chinese Herbal Tea a “dark horse” in world beverage industry. At present, the output of Chinese Herbal Tea has reached two million tons (including Hong Kong and Macao) with its distribution area covering near 20 countries including China and countries abroad like the U.S., Canada, France, England, Italy, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. Today, Chinese Herbal Tea culture is considered as an integrated part of Chinese catering culture; therefore, protecting and promoting it are of great significance.

Chinese Herbal Tea was enlisted into the list of the first batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage in 2006.