嘿嘿视频

Global Tea Initiative Colloquium Features Bestselling Writer, Tea Experts

Novelist Lisa See Is Keynote for Annual 嘿嘿视频 Event Next Week

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Tea harvested in China.
A man harvests pu-erh tea in China. (Courtesy/Lisa See and Linda Louie).

Quick Summary

  • Tea plays a role in See鈥檚 novel, 鈥楾he Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane鈥
  • The beverage is more widely consumed than coffee or wine
  • Online colloquium is free and open to public

Lisa See, the author of a bestselling novel in which tea plays a central role, will give the keynote address at the sixth annual colloquium for the 嘿嘿视频 Global Tea Initiative for the Study of Tea Culture and Science.

See鈥檚 novel, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, explores the lives of a Chinese mother and the daughter she gave up for adoption by an American couple. While the mother continues the grueling work of farming tea as her family has done for generations, her daughter lives a privileged life in California. Both the mother and daughter are torn by their separation and search for answers in tea.

See鈥檚 keynote address at 9:30 a.m. will kick off an all-day, online colloquium on Thursday, Jan. 21, titled 鈥淭he Stories We Tell: Myths, Legends, and Anecdotes About Tea.鈥 The online event is free and open to all, and will include a wide range of presentations, such as tea cultivation in California, tea and Soviet identity, tea and spirituality in Vietnam, tea in restoration England and the tea collection at London鈥檚 Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. Presentations will be made remotely from Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Great Britain, Colombia and around the United States. 

GTI web site
The Global Tea Initiative will hold its annual colloquium Thursday, Jan. 21 online.

To register and learn more about the colloquium, visit the .

Shortly after The Tea Girl was published in 2017, , director of the Global Tea Initiative, received the novel as a gift from her husband.

鈥淚 devoured it,鈥 said Burnett, an art history professor who specializes in the history, theory and collection of Chinese art from 1550 to today. The theme for the 2021 colloquium, stories connected to tea, had already been decided when Burnett realized it could connect well to See鈥檚 book.

鈥淚 reached out to her and she immediately said, 鈥業鈥檓 in,鈥欌 Burnett said. See will be joined in her talk by her research partner Linda Louie, owner of the Bana Tea Company.

To research The Tea Girl, See and Louie visited a tea growing and processing area in China.

鈥淲e were living tea 24 hours a day,鈥 See said.

The complex tea culture of Asia provides a rich backdrop for The Tea Girl and other books. 

鈥淭here is a deep relationship to philosophy, poetry and art 鈥 it just hits so many areas,鈥 See said.

The many stories of tea

Stories about tea can take many forms: the history of its cultivations, its role in many cultural practices from religion to art making, to the commercial beverage industry where tales about wine and coffee are rich. This year鈥檚 theme grew out of the 2020 colloquium, which featured the comparison of wine and tea cultures, and the successful narratives in the wine industry.    

The signature image for the colloquium is a blue and white ceramic tray from the mid-19th century Netherlands that is decorated with two couples having an animated tea party. It was donated to the GTI by Jeffrey Ruda, 嘿嘿视频 professor emeritus of art history. The art history program is part of the Department of Art and Art History in the College of Letters and Science.

While the wine and coffee industries have done a good job of telling their story and selling their products, tea has lagged far behind even though it is more widely consumed than wine and coffee, Burnett said. According to her sources, tea is a $12 billion industry, far surpassed by coffee at $80 billion and wine at $70 billion.

A wider reach

Burnett said she hopes that the inclusion of See as this year鈥檚 keynote speaker and the online format 鈥 made necessary by restrictions under COVID-19 鈥 will make the event even more broadly appealing and accessible than in the past.

鈥淭he upside is more people can attend, and we鈥檝e heard participants will be joining us from Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Kenya, Great Britain and the Americas,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e should have a much larger attendance. And that鈥檚 saying something. GTI Colloquium audiences typically range from 400 to 600 people.鈥

For the 2021 colloquium, the GTI conducted an international call for presentations, casting a much wider net than ever before. GTI also just launched the International Society of Global Tea Scholars, an organization that all who research and work on tea at research institutions or in the industry can . The inaugural meeting will be held online Jan. 22.

鈥淭he colloquium features scholars and students, experts and industry professionals, and will cover topics from the humanities and social sciences to science, agriculture and health,鈥 Burnett said. 鈥淎ttendees will gain deep understanding of tea, tea culture and the business of tea. 嘿嘿视频 led the way for the study of wine 50 years ago 鈥 transforming California into a powerful wine producer,鈥 she said. 鈥淣ow, through GTI, 嘿嘿视频 is leading the way for California to become an important tea producer.鈥

Media Resources

Jeffrey Day, College of Letters and Science, 530-219-8258, jaaday@ucdavis.edu

Karen Nikos-Rose, News and Media Relations, 530-219-5472, kmnikos@ucdavis.edu

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