Cultural salon featuring Chinese tea attracts Australians

With light tea aroma, wonderful intangible cultural heritage performances and an elegant tea art show, a tea-themed cultural salon staged in downtown Sydney provided a fresh and immersive experience for Australians.

The event, entitled "Tea for Harmony: Yaji Cultural Salon," was held at the China Cultural Center in Sydney on Thursday evening, which is also part of a global event to promote China's tea culture.

Visitors had the chance to watch tea-themed traditional Chinese folk dance and tea ceremony performances, taste different kinds of Chinese tea, try paper cutting, and learn more about the history and cultural backgrounds of tea.

David Van Nunen, president of the Australian Watercolour Institute, told Xinhua he liked the Wulong Tea most as it is very "beautiful and light."

"The event is wonderful because the way that Australians make their tea generally is not as quite a ceremony or culture. And it is wonderful to take part in this cultural experience between the two peoples and the two countries," he said.

Sydneysider Tracy Saunders tried paper cutting under the guidance of a master of this intangible cultural heritage.

"It is a very new experience for me doing the paper cutting. I'd never heard of that, but I really thoroughly enjoyed it. The small and intricate techniques need a lot of concentration and have a sense of mindfulness and a really calming influence," she told Xinhua.

"I can understand more about the tea culture, the paper cutting, and that reconnection with land, and between nature and humans."

Chinese Consul General in Sydney Zhou Limin said tea plays a special role in Chinese society. It is widely spread across the world and serves as a carrier for cultural exchanges between China and the rest of the world.

Culture and travel can always contribute to mutual understanding and respect for cultural diversity, he added.

Xiao Xiayong, director of the China Cultural Center in Sydney, said he hoped the event could promote a better understanding of Chinese tea culture in Australia, and the idea of harmony and inclusiveness conveyed in Chinese tea culture could be embodied in the two countries' cultural and people-to-people exchanges.

The tea salon was held along with a cultural and tourism promotion event for southeast China's Fujian province, one of important cradles of Chinese tea culture.