Teahouses and the Tea Art: A Study on the Current Trend of Tea Culture in China and the Changes in Tea Drinking Tradition

he subject of this thesis is tradition and the current trend of tea culture in China. In order to answer the following three questions whether the current tea culture phenomena can be called tradition or not; what are the changes in tea cultural tradition and what are the new features of the current trend of tea culture; what are the endogenous and exogenous factors which influenced the change in the tea drinking tradition , I did literature research from ancient tea classics and historical documents to summarize the development history of Chinese tea culture, and used two month to do fieldwork on teahouses in Xi an so that I could have a clear understanding on the current trend of tea culture. It is found that the current tea culture is inherited from tradition and changed with social development. Tea drinking traditions have become more and more popular with diverse forms. It closely combined with the social economy. Moreover, the changes in tradition are influenced by human beings and the social environment. The requirements for convenience and equality have influenced the changes in tradition endogenously while the economic and political influences as well as western cultures and development of mass media are the exogenous factors which have made the changes in tea drinking tradition