TEA IN CHINA

Evening Post, Volume CVI, Issue 85, 20 October 1928, Page 20

TEA IN CHINA

A NATIONAL BEVERAGE. ] The- Chinese drink! tea, and vth.ey. smoke cigarettes/ Ancient and modern customs aro thus combined to guide; social functions. ; The beat tea comes frpm China. All; the Chinese —rich and poor alike —, drink toa. l*ca is the national bever-j age., Common courtesy centres aroundi .the cup that cheers. Enter any home: anywhere, and they get busy, at once to; offer tho guest ..the necessary mark of: hospitality (writes "S. Henderson Smith' in tho "Woman's, Magazine"). . The: toa is made with boiling .water, in it \ little pot—not necessarily ...a fresh bre\V,-; the.pot is always in uso.. ' Your .cup is; placed.before you—no handle to it, and' no milk or sugar. .Before you. drink, you turn politely, and with as much: formality as you can muster to thchead of the family, and.also_ :to as . many others as you can possibly npt-iee, and invite each in turn to drink. Strangers may be watching you (it is. not rude to stare) and will be . delighted-if. you turn to them and Sa,y "Ching-ehing." Then you sip. ' Your, manneis^arn-test-ed ■■and-'trained by the ;way you drink tea in China. It" is very 'rudo to'drink a whole cup of tea first lap!!' The cigarette: is-now in common-use. It is an interloper—entirely foreign to China, 'and its' use has-brought 'many complications. ■- You ihay sirioke 'all the time—probably your host will if you don't—and the gilt is off the gingerbread. Etiquette has deteriorated tremendously. The' . gentleman,, iv China thinks this,foreign-way .of .smoking a very frivolous custom,,and courtesies suffer accordingly. • . : -