ISSUE 29 AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION STUDY 1 h GUIDE CAROLINE WRIGHT-NEVILLE CAROLINE 6. The Medicinal Properties of Tea 7. Food and Festivals BEFORE YOU WATCH Discuss these general questions: • What do you think of when you drink tea from china cups? • How do you and your friends make a cup of tea? • Make a list of Australian native plants and non-native plants you have in your garden. • How did the non-native plants get to Australia? CURRICULUM LINKS • What images do you associate with Coca Cola and Microsoft? Why? OBERT FORTUNE THE • Compare some of the plots of James TEA THIEF is relevant Bond fi lms. How real are his mis- Rfor students in senior sions? secondary or adult educa- tion courses studying History, ROBERT FORTUNE: Studies Of Society and Environ- SECRET AGENT ment (SOSE), English, English as a Second Language (ESL), BIOGRAPHY Politics, Media Studies and Economics. Robert Fortune was born in Scotland in 1813 and is famous for being the This guide is divided into the follow- horticulturalist responsible for the in- ing areas: troduction of about 200 new species of plants into England. He was an avid 1. Robert Fortune: Biography explorer and adventurer who travelled 2. The East India Company around Asia and India collecting seed- 3. The Opium Wars lings and keeping detailed records of 4. The Signifi cance of Tea everything he saw. He was also one 5. Movement for the Protecttion of the of Britain’s most successful secret Right To Taste. AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION ISSUE 29 2 agents. In 1848, the British govern- Make a list of some of the plants he ment commissioned him to bring might have found in China that are now back from China the best tea seeds, growing in your garden. tea plants, implements and tea work- http://www.zero35.freeserve.co.uk ers, in order to establish plantations http://www.users.qwest.net in Northern India. This was a secret http://www.gardenweb.com mission as the tea plants were heavily protected in China. Disguising himself CHINA as a Chinese man he was led into the most remote parts of China where he Choose one of the topics below to was able to observe and learn the se- research for the class. crets of tea cultivation and processing. This was an extremely risky mission • Research some of the history and as, if caught, Fortune would face the culture of China. death penalty. From 1848 to 1851 he • What products does Australia import stole over 20,000 tea plants from China from China? and transported them to India where • What are some of the characteristics they were grown and cultivated. For- of Chinese art that you see in every- tune was able to learn for himself the day objects? best methods and techniques of tea • What other cultures have been infl u- cultivation and production, methods enced by Chinese traditions? kept secret by the Chinese for centu- • Who was Confucius and what were ries. Fortune’s remarkable feats made his main ideas? possible for the fi rst time, the intensive • What other countries have been cropping and processing of tea in In- infl uenced by Confucianism? dia. In January 1862, Robert Fortune • Do some of the principles of Confu- settled in Brompton, London and lived cianism still exist in Chinese cultures off the sale of his travel books and his now? How? collection of Chinese antiques. THE EAST INDIA COMPANY DISCUSS In 1601 the English East India Company If you had to disguise yourself as an was founded by a group of merchants. Australian, what are some of the most They hoped to attain a monopoly on important things that you would need trade within Asia and overtake Spain, to know? Portugal and Holland, which were the other dominant trading empires at the AFTER YOU WATCH THE FILM: time. The East India Company dealt in silk, ivory, spices and cotton, it also 1. How would you describe Robert bought wool, raw silk, chinaware, musk Fortune’s character? and taffeta all to be sold in England. 2. What qualities did he have? It had offi ces in East Asia, India and 3. Why did he choose to do this Sri Lanka. work? 4. What would have been the negative Fine Chinese porcelain was the fi rst effects of his actions? product brought to England at request 5. Why didn’t the Chinese guess who of Queen Elizabeth 1. Hence the term ISSUE 29 or what he was? Royal China. Royal China was so popular that, in the early 1700s, the AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION SCIENCE Chinese made tableware and fi gurines in European-style designs. They also WEB SITES ABOUT ROBERT made teapots for the English market FORTUNE: to suit the style in which the English made tea. The following sites contain links to information about Robert Fortune and However, the most famous merchan- his work. dise attributed to the East India Com- pany was its trade in tea. 3 THIS PAGE: AUSTRALIAN MORRISON DRESSED AS A CHINAMAN AROUND 1860, ROBERT FORTUNE, FILM CREW IN THE GREAT RED ROBE TEA GARDEN, WUYISHAN, CHINA. FACING PAGE: TEA PICKING, TEA TRANSPORTATION BY BOAT, BLACK TEA MANUFACTURING, TEA TRANSPORTATION BY ROAD. Contrary to what was popularly be- in the world today? lieved, tea was unknown in India till • How do you know they’re so big? the British introduced the crop. China • What infl uence do they have over held a monopoly on its tea production your lifestyle? and its trade. • In what way are they involved in politics? Chinese tea became the most sought after product in Britain. By 1750, the MEDIA STUDIES: FOLLOW-UP East India Company was importing 2.5 TASK million pounds of Chinese tea annually and was auctioning it in London for fi ve Robert Fortune The Tea Thief uses shillings a pound—twice what it paid poetry, folklore, art and interviews to in Canton. By 1800, the importation portray how the connection between a of Chinese tea would generate more multinational corporation and govern- revenue than the company’s entire ment, was integral in the reshaping of trade with India. cultures and societies. The English East India Company QUESTIONS expanded its commercial activities over 250 years and controlled half the • What images do the paintings por- world’s trade. It also acted as a proxy tray of tea drinkers? colonial government but in 1858, the • Are there any parallels between the company had grown ineffi cient, and East India Company and modern the Crown revoked its charter and day multinational corporations? took over the management of its own colonies. TASK Source: http://www.discovery.com http://encarta.msn.com • Choose a species or product that has been introduced into Australia DISCUSS from overseas. (For example: Animals such as cattle, sheep or rabbits, plants • What are the biggest corporations such as tobacco, or substances such AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION ISSUE 29 4 as alcohol or fast food.) • Use the questions below as a guide, or think of some questions of your own, to explore the effects this new product or species has had on our society. 1. Where did the product come from? 2. How was it brought here? 3. What effect did it have on the popu- lation? 4. What effect did it have on the native fl ora and fauna? • Develop a screenplay for a docu- mentary that presents your fi ndings to these questions. Use examples of art in your screenplay. • What imagery would you use to express what you want to say? THE OPIUM WARS Where does this phrase come from? I wouldn’t do it, not for all the tea in China The tea trade was a source of tension between the English and the Chinese during the 1700s. The Chinese control- led the tea market and were able to set extremely high prices. The tea trade in China became economically unten- able for the West because the Chinese demanded payment in silver. Shipping such large amounts of silver around the world was risky and took a heavy toll main- tain isolation from the West on Britain’s fi nances. by closing their ports in the hope of discouraging further imports of opium. The English East India Company’s fi rst In the early 1840s the British Army de- solution was to grow opium poppies feated the Chinese and were granted - an inexpensive crop - in Britain’s the island of Hong Kong under the Indian colonies. treaty of Nanking. China was forced to open up fi ve of its major ports to The British sold opium to the Chinese British traders. Opium continued to be for silver, which they needed to buy sold to China until 1908. China’s tea. Despite the now free opium trade, the ISSUE 29 As a result of the opium trade, nearly tea trade continued to deplete the Em- one quarter of the Chinese population pire’s coffers. China produced and sold AUSTRALIAN SCREEN EDUCATION became addicted to opium. In 1729 to the West, teas of increasing medio- the Chinese emperor banned opium, cre quality, and was unable to keep up but the East India Company continued with the increase in demand. to trade in it. It was then that the British decided In 1839 the Chinese went to war with to set up tea plantations in India to Britain over the sale of opium. Brit- be able to control tea production and ain believed that it had the right to above all the commodity price. The free trade, whereas China sought to aim was to ensure a constant supply 5 THIS PAGE: MONK PREPARING TEA, CHINESE TEA MANUFACTURERS ROLLING TEA LEAVES, FILMING IN TUKDAH TEA MANUFACTURE, DARJEELING, INDIA.