[EN]
In this collaborative CREATE, we are highlighting the wild tea as a product of biotrade, one of the biodiversities from northwest Vietnam, the Ban Lien commune.
As an international-recognized product yet a “raw” product, it lacks its own narrative or identity. We don’t really know what happened behind the tea, behind the farming, behind the kitchen, or behind the growers.
We want to listen to the voices from the other cultures or the other sides, to empower local people. Not only about their ownership, but also the local issues they face and experience, which might resonate with some of us. We retell their stories as we see the people's stories in their culture, the story that we don't easily heard of in the major or established narrative.
There are the exclusive part that articulates the Ban Lien commune as tea producer and tea farms, and the inclusive part that blended not just the Vietnam part but also more cultures to see. We serve 6 articles for you to explore deeper into each topic.
Who Made The Tea?
First, this topic will cover the life of the tea growers, not just the work, but also socially and culturally. In the end, it talks about how people in Ban Lien live together intergenerationally with a quite balance relationship, and a reflection on living in a remote village instead of the city.
From Farm to Cup will explore more exclusively how and what Tay people doing on the process of tea farming until it becomes a ready-to-drink refreshment in their cup. What they value from their tea farming, tea processing method, and tea quality. It’s like seeing through how they experience their very own tea culture.
From Farm to Shelf is covering global tea production and marketing. We see how tea producers market, and offer their products in a way, that not only reveals their cultures. They came in some propaganda perspective, some well-beingness purpose, some cross-culture narratives, some colorful illustration on the packagings. We also question how should this huge chain benefit each other to make it a sustainable and healthy relationship for everyone.
On Our Table. What’s on your table when you’re making a cup of tea? There are many tea cultures that include ceremonies and specific items to make tea drinking special and valuable. Here, we share some different tea cultures to show their richness. They still exist through time, through modernity, and through cultural development.
More Than Just a Drink. Today, we can find tea not just as a drink. Tea is infused, included, and used in many other ways. Even as a drink, it is not just a simple refreshment, it is a social thing.
Tea Reading, just like the name, it possibly reads the future. We are not encouraging you to practice witchcraft here, but speaking of the future, we wonder how people in Ban Lien look into the future. Do they have dreams? Yes, even though some of them are not having one. We want to know what they dream for the future, and what chances, possibilities, struggles that they have to face in order to make their dreams come true.
We hope you have the thirst to sip our curiosi-tea and enjoy the contents.
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This project is supported by Mekong Cultural Hub, British Council, and Helvetas. For more info, read here.