I think it was humble enough. Jealous much? I admit I had a tinge of it in the beginning... gee a couple of white guys living their dream in Yunnan, that could be me, lol.drumhum wrote: I am alone here in feeling that video was a patronizing, hypocritical piece of cr*p?
Mar 12th, '09, 16:23
Posts: 73
Joined: May 5th, '08, 21:16
Location: Northern VA, DC area
Re: Andao tea's patronizing video
Mar 12th, '09, 17:10
Posts: 511
Joined: Dec 26th, '08, 18:21
Scrolling: scrolling
Location: Atlanta, GA
Contact:
bsteele
That's the way I felt. It wasn't offensive(not much can offend me). I just thought: young, uneducated sounding, little tea company is going to save china lol.GeekgirlUnveiled wrote:Haha! thanks for sharing this, it cracked me up! Nice to know that a 20ish y.o. guy with a little tea company is going bring "authenticity" back to the Chinese. teehee!
'We are showing the chinese culture that what they are doing is worthwhile.' LMAO!!!
meh, it's not offensive to me, but it does come off as a bit condescending.
Mar 14th, '09, 08:52
Posts: 132
Joined: Sep 15th, '08, 21:01
Location: Millerton, NY
Contact:
toastedtoads
So far I've had the Qimen Mao Feng and the Wuyi Rou Gui. The Wuyi is very good, although I'm new to that type of tea. The Qimen is good, but in a blind taste test I did at work (which I suppose is slightly biased) it was last place out of ours (Harney) and Adagio's Keemun Rhapsody...but also the most expensive. It has a specific taste that I've been noticing in some Chinese red teas that I can't describe at all except to say it has a slight soy sauce flavor. I've noticed some Golden Monkeys and the Wuyi Junmee at work have it, and while that may be something people enjoy...it's something I don't seem to like at all.bsteele wrote:The more important question I want answered...
how's the tea?
I love my tea table and gaiwans though, and they are very nice if you have any questions, so I'll keep looking around to see what they have.
GeekgirlUnveiled, JustinW,
You share my sentiments. And I'm certainly glad it brought a smile.
I never said I was offended by it.
Also, I was never suggesting Andao was not a legitimate company.
It certainly doesn't inspire me to buy from them though.
Anyway, thats cleared that up, time to drink tea
You share my sentiments. And I'm certainly glad it brought a smile.
I never said I was offended by it.
Also, I was never suggesting Andao was not a legitimate company.
It certainly doesn't inspire me to buy from them though.
Anyway, thats cleared that up, time to drink tea
Sounds about like typical imperial American hubris.
"Important to show the Chinese people that what they are doing is 'cool'"
This guy definitely projects that he is very superior and had to come in to help the folks of Yunnan. He doesn't seem to know all that much about tea - in fact, tea is barely mentioned other than as a vehicle for this guy to push an agenda.
If some of us here who really loved tea visited this place, I expect would be humbled and grateful to learn more about tea from the producers and life long drinkers. Not to show up to show them something about tea!
Thanks for the video, very funny.
"Important to show the Chinese people that what they are doing is 'cool'"
This guy definitely projects that he is very superior and had to come in to help the folks of Yunnan. He doesn't seem to know all that much about tea - in fact, tea is barely mentioned other than as a vehicle for this guy to push an agenda.
If some of us here who really loved tea visited this place, I expect would be humbled and grateful to learn more about tea from the producers and life long drinkers. Not to show up to show them something about tea!
Thanks for the video, very funny.
Mar 14th, '09, 13:29
Posts: 342
Joined: Jul 30th, '08, 02:24
Location: Cambridge, MA
Contact:
xuancheng
I see where you are coming from with your rant. The man in the video makes a few statements which give the impression that one of his goals is to be an influence on Chinese culture with the goal of guiding the Chinese down the correct path. Perhaps this instinct could have been expressed in a more constructive manner.
In general I am in agreement with his basic sentiment with regards to the cultural revolution. Rather than dwelling on the effect it had on culture which I find acceptable to my biases and tastes, I would mourn the effect it had on families which were torn apart by the new political expectancies that we can read about weekly in Chinese newspapers. I have never read much about the cultural revolution as it affected Yunnan specifically. I do know that since the communist regime has been in power, Yunnan has become less important in the international drug trade. ( I realize that in the last 10-20 years there has been an increase in drug trafficking in Yunnan, but compare this to the first half of the 20th century, and there is no question as to the magnitude of the change)
Sometimes "fair trade" seems a bit questionable in the context of Chinese tea as it goes for very high prices domestically, however there may be solid reasons for encouraging skilled farmers to produce high quality tea, and preserving old bushes by giving them a little bit extra. This is viable if you are the only middle man between the customer and farmer. I would hesitate to engage in 'fair trade' with a Chinese non-producer/middle man. It will be 'fair' at any price he agrees to.
Besides the first comment on guiding Chinese culture, I think that this video is not so bad. These guys probably care a lot about what they are doing. If they just cared about making money, there are myriad ways of doing this in the context of Chinese international trade which are orders of magnitude more lucrative than tea cakes. Although some of us on tea chat may be so well educated about pu'er tea specifically that this video seems a bit didactic and pedantic, we can't blame them for trying to expand their audience beyond we who are already sold on their product.
I guess my biggest problem with the video is the man can't pronounce the name of the province he's been living in for four years.
In general I am in agreement with his basic sentiment with regards to the cultural revolution. Rather than dwelling on the effect it had on culture which I find acceptable to my biases and tastes, I would mourn the effect it had on families which were torn apart by the new political expectancies that we can read about weekly in Chinese newspapers. I have never read much about the cultural revolution as it affected Yunnan specifically. I do know that since the communist regime has been in power, Yunnan has become less important in the international drug trade. ( I realize that in the last 10-20 years there has been an increase in drug trafficking in Yunnan, but compare this to the first half of the 20th century, and there is no question as to the magnitude of the change)
Sometimes "fair trade" seems a bit questionable in the context of Chinese tea as it goes for very high prices domestically, however there may be solid reasons for encouraging skilled farmers to produce high quality tea, and preserving old bushes by giving them a little bit extra. This is viable if you are the only middle man between the customer and farmer. I would hesitate to engage in 'fair trade' with a Chinese non-producer/middle man. It will be 'fair' at any price he agrees to.
Besides the first comment on guiding Chinese culture, I think that this video is not so bad. These guys probably care a lot about what they are doing. If they just cared about making money, there are myriad ways of doing this in the context of Chinese international trade which are orders of magnitude more lucrative than tea cakes. Although some of us on tea chat may be so well educated about pu'er tea specifically that this video seems a bit didactic and pedantic, we can't blame them for trying to expand their audience beyond we who are already sold on their product.
I guess my biggest problem with the video is the man can't pronounce the name of the province he's been living in for four years.
茶也醉人何必酒？
Mar 14th, '09, 14:27
Posts: 529
Joined: Jul 23rd, '08, 17:07
Location: The Isle of Malta
Mar 16th, '09, 17:22
Posts: 1559
Joined: Jan 28th, '07, 02:24
Location: Fort Worth, TX
Contact:
Space Samurai
Response from Andao Tea on video
In regards to the video on our website:
Thank you for engaging with us and looking at our site. Please feel free to make comments on our blog, engage with us on twitter (@andaotea), or to send us an email directly if you have any questions or comments. We are happy to discuss any issue related to Andao Tea including our products and services.
First, let me start by saying that we take great pride in the high quality, organic and single-origin teas we source and provide. This is our first priority - to make sure that the products we provide are the best Chinese teas available and that you are able to enjoy them in much the same fashion as the traditional Chinese tea drinking culture would have it. This is why we founded Andao Tea: to share these fabulous teas with you.
Secondly, we believe when you examine the facts surrounding the Chinese cultural revolution, the
loss of life, of cultural, and religious sites and artifacts, such as the thousands of monestaries in Tibet, you will agree that
the damage was deep. Speaking to Chinese people who were students during this time, the 'sent down youth', who were taken from family and comminity and sent to live in the humblest of farms, you will find likely find a similar assesment. The people of China, many of whom had their basic education and literacy hiding in crop fields, will not likely tell you that the cultural revolution brought many good things to them.
Certainly, though we can not refute the boon that development has been to the people of China, we can argue that the modern materialism has caused the
further degredation of the culture and values of a beautiful, ancient country, not to mention the enviroment and other quality of life factors.
Those of us at Andao, not native to China, have combined more than 15 years of living in China, and are all fluent in Chinese. We may be etic
in our perspective, but we have tried to fully immersed ourselves into the Chinese culture and way of life. We visit tea farms, work with tea farmers and have fully engaged in those communities.
This is why our mission is organic, is fair trade, and ultimately is to share the true ancient Chinese culture with outsiders. We focus on helping to preserve the Chinese tea drinking culture and share that culture as much as we can, we hope that you will join us in that mission which we view as an integral part of an amazing country
Thank you,
Rob and Jake
Andao Tea co-founders
Thank you for engaging with us and looking at our site. Please feel free to make comments on our blog, engage with us on twitter (@andaotea), or to send us an email directly if you have any questions or comments. We are happy to discuss any issue related to Andao Tea including our products and services.
First, let me start by saying that we take great pride in the high quality, organic and single-origin teas we source and provide. This is our first priority - to make sure that the products we provide are the best Chinese teas available and that you are able to enjoy them in much the same fashion as the traditional Chinese tea drinking culture would have it. This is why we founded Andao Tea: to share these fabulous teas with you.
Secondly, we believe when you examine the facts surrounding the Chinese cultural revolution, the
loss of life, of cultural, and religious sites and artifacts, such as the thousands of monestaries in Tibet, you will agree that
the damage was deep. Speaking to Chinese people who were students during this time, the 'sent down youth', who were taken from family and comminity and sent to live in the humblest of farms, you will find likely find a similar assesment. The people of China, many of whom had their basic education and literacy hiding in crop fields, will not likely tell you that the cultural revolution brought many good things to them.
Certainly, though we can not refute the boon that development has been to the people of China, we can argue that the modern materialism has caused the
further degredation of the culture and values of a beautiful, ancient country, not to mention the enviroment and other quality of life factors.
Those of us at Andao, not native to China, have combined more than 15 years of living in China, and are all fluent in Chinese. We may be etic
in our perspective, but we have tried to fully immersed ourselves into the Chinese culture and way of life. We visit tea farms, work with tea farmers and have fully engaged in those communities.
This is why our mission is organic, is fair trade, and ultimately is to share the true ancient Chinese culture with outsiders. We focus on helping to preserve the Chinese tea drinking culture and share that culture as much as we can, we hope that you will join us in that mission which we view as an integral part of an amazing country
Thank you,
Rob and Jake
Andao Tea co-founders