18 | Tuesday, July 21, 2020 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY LIFE Designing to drink across cultures By MA ZHENHUAN in Hangzhou [email protected] Swiss designer Didier Rudolf Quarroz’s love of Chinese tea cul- ture has inspired him to design innovative new items to brew the beverage. The graduate of the renowned Swiss design school, ECAL (Uni- versity of Art and Design Lau- sanne), developed an interest in Chinese tea after working at a Shanghai-based design company, where he was by chance engaged in a tea project. Tea plantations have turned the once-barren mountains into a land of hope in Guizhou province. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY His research helped him hone a deep understanding of the dif- ferences between Chinese and Western tea products. This made him think about designing items for foreigners to brew Chinese tea. “I hope to design easy-to-use and modern tea-making tools to help foreigners try Chinese tradi- tional tea and give them an inter- Matcha without match esting experience in brewing it,” Quarroz says. In 2017, he moved to The tea product has brought rapid development to a previously impoverished Hangzhou, capital of East China’s Zhejiang province and a major swathe of Guizhou province, report Cheng Yuezhu in Beijing and Yang Jun in Guiyang. tea-production base, to explore the possibilities of applying West- any cities in Southwest Chi- production allows the tea leaves picked ern concepts in design to the na’s Guizhou province have in summer and autumn to be used and brewing of Chinese tea. benefited from growing generates income year-round.” “I want to focus on the tea tea, but Tongren city has The cooperation has helped the village industry, and Hangzhou is a great Mused matcha as a novel approach to cre- solve the problem of tea sales. And the fit because of the long history and ating various tea products in recent tea factories have provided sufficient job profound culture of tea here,” years. opportunities for locals — so much so Quarroz says. Luoxiang village in Nuxi town, Jiang- that they now go to other towns to He opened his design compa- kou county, for instance, has been keep- recruit workers. ny, Shateso, with the help of local ing up and cooperating with companies “Our tea plantations meet internation- incubator Nihub in the city’s Bin- producing matcha. al standards and have stricter manage- jiang district. Yang Maohua, who’s now Luoxiang’s ment requirements,” Que says. Quarroz began to concentrate Party chief, was a pioneer in recognizing “So, we’re able to provide more jobs for on the design of a tea infuser to tea planting’s potential and started villagers, and their salaries are also at make brewing easier for foreign- developing the industry in the village. least 10 percent more than before. We ers. Before tea was introduced, the vil- pay around 2.3 million yuan to our work- lage was afflicted by barren land and ers annually.” poverty. Its terrain was mostly unculti- Yang also says that the tea and matcha vated, and villagers frequently experi- production has substantially improved enced poor harvests. local living conditions. Like many villagers at the time, Yang “The traditional brewed tea is a slow- “Eight percent of households now left the mountains for big cities as a moving product,” Gui Tea general man- have a car. Over 300 families have reno- young adult, working different jobs. ager Hu Qingshuang says. vated their houses, and many have He later returned to his hometown “Its output is greater than its sales, and bought residences downtown.” and worked as a driver becoming one of the market has reached saturation. But, More villages in Nuxi are following the first locals to earn a decent living. there’s considerable demand for Luoxiang village’s lead. The town hosts He decided to devote himself to help- matcha.” over 10 tea-processing plants, including ing other villagers overcome poverty. He The Gui Tea Industrial Park and the six for matcha, and 18 production lines. ran for village head and was elected by a Tongren Gui Tea brand were established About 2,000 hectares of tea fields have majority vote in 2006. in Jiangkou county in 2017, after pur- been planted. A tea infuser designed by In 2007, Jiangkou county’s govern- Above: Tongren Gui Tea produces a chasing facilities and successfully devel- Tongren Gui Tea has been awarded sev- Didier Rudolf Quarroz. ment planned to develop tea as the main variety of matcha products. oping manufacturing methods. eral international certifications, includ- PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY industry in Nuxi town. Top: Tea planters harvest in early Luoxiang village started cooperating ing the Rainforest Standard, ISO 9001, While most villagers were skeptical as spring in Jiangkou county, Tongren with Gui Tea in 2018, building a process- ISO 22000 and the AIB Standards, allow- to whether tea would actually improve city, in Guizhou province. ing plant specially for matcha and sign- ing it to enter international markets. It’s a cone-shaped container their lives, Yang took the initiative to PHOTOS PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY ing a long-term contract with the “Our matcha powder is now exported with frosted glass and a silicone plant tea and encouraged others to company in technical guidance, sales to companies around the world, includ- lid. All users need to do is to put transfer their farmland for collective use. and brand upgrading. ing in the United States, Germany, the leaves inside, place it in a cup That year, the village grew assorted tea “With the help of Gui Tea, our planta- France and Brazil,” Hu says. and add hot water. varieties on 27 hectares. tion has expanded to 1,066 hectares, “Last year, our exports accounted for “The infuser can be taken out Yang continued to experiment with Traditional brewed tea about 0.2 hectare per capita, and each one-10th of our total sales.” from the cup easily without new ways to increase harvests and devel- hectare can yield 90,000 yuan in reve- The company is experimenting with (users’) fingers being scalded by op the local tea industry. mainly uses spring tea nue,” says Que Conghan, deputy head of its own matcha products by establishing the hot water,” Quarroz says. He also registered the Luoxiang village leaves ... Matcha the village and general manager of a matcha institute in Guizhou’s capital, He adds that the container tea cooperative and a tea-processing Luoxiang Tea Co. Guiyang, to develop a wide range of with tea inside can be brewed plant, Luoxiang Tea Co, selling nearly production allows the “Our village now has four tea-process- matcha products, such as cakes, ice several times by putting it in and 300,000 yuan ($43,000) worth that year. tea leaves picked in ing plants and over 260 tea-processing creams and biscuits. taking it out of the water, and the The village became one of the first to summer and autumn to machines.” The institute also allows visitors to flavor’s strength can be sustained cooperate with bigger tea enterprises One of the most evident advantages of make their own matcha lattes to provide at the same time. to sell its products outside. be used and generates matcha, Que says, is that its raw materi- an enhanced experience and promote Hangzhou boasts a booming In 2015, Gui Tea Co Ltd, income year­round.” als are not as restricted as traditional tea. matcha culture. tea industry, which has offered one of Guizhou’s biggest “Traditional brewed tea mainly uses the Swiss designer many oppor- tea companies, sought to Que Conghan, general spring tea leaves, so the plantations used Contact the writers through tunities to cooperate with local add matcha to its products. manager of Luoxiang Tea Co to only harvest in the spring. Matcha [email protected] plantations and companies. “Driven by a love for Chinese tea, I cooperate with local compa- nies and help them to develop new kinds of tea products. Also, Plantations: Hard work lays the roots of success we sometimes organize work- shops to introduce different teas From page 15 tea on a small scale and had little experi- struggling with poverty can make a liv- to the public,” Quarroz says. ence in running tea plantations, so, in ing by participating in these causes. Hangzhou also enables smooth Zhang, of Zhiqiang village, emphasiz- the beginning, the villagers were con- Fu says that in 2018, Dazhai village business operations, he adds. es the success was also due to the com- cerned whether the plantation would registered 139 impoverished house- “In general, it is easy to start a prehensive support offered by institutes actually turn a profit. holds, 686 people altogether, and by the business in Hangzhou. The gov- and companies from Zhejiang province. “Thankfully, apart from donating tea end of 2019, 114 households and 586 peo- ernment and agencies are ramp- When they encountered difficulties in saplings to us, Huangdu village also ple have been taken off the list. ing up efforts to help and support growing tea, experts from the Tea offers us support in growing and man- The remaining 25 impoverished young entrepreneurs, including Research Institute of the Chinese Acade- agement, and Zhejiang Tea Group helps households followed soon after. those from foreign countries,” he my of Agricultural Sciences provided us sell the tea. Our concerns are all Meng Pinghong, an NPC deputy and adds. them with technical support. resolved,” Fu says. a researcher with the Guizhou Acade- Quarroz says he plans to design Because white tea requires a compli- Since 2019, Zhongzhai township has A tea planter in Anji, Zhejiang prov- my of Agricultural Sciences, says such 10 innovative tea-related prod- cated manufacturing process, Yuanfeng been expanding its tea planting area, ince, checks the saplings which will measures are regarded as a vital ele- ucts by combining Chinese tea Tea Machinery company from Anji adding more than 330 hectares of newly be donated to Guizhou ment in China’s poverty alleviation culture with international ele- donated 31 sets of white tea processing built plantations in seven other villages, province.