铁观音茶艺师 Tieguanyin Tea Master

Warming the cup, sanitary ware, enjoying tea, pouring tea, brewing, making soup, dividing cups, serving tea... Accompanied by soothing and elegant music, tea artist Liao Xuehua sat on the side of the coffee table with peaceful eyes and gentle movements. In her slender and graceful hand posture, the originally complicated and tedious tea art process danced like flowing water, skillfully and leisurely, in one go, all the audiences under the stage cast envious glances.

How is an excellent tea artist like Liao Xuehua cultivated? How is the tea art industry developing now? The answers to these questions are contained in the rising tide of vocational education development.

The "hot" tea master becomes the representative of the National People's Congress

How to make a good cup of tea? This question may seem simple, but it is actually complicated. From Lu Yu's "Tea Classic", a series of regulations on the tea making method in the Tang Dynasty were carried out, to the popular "tea fight" among scholars and scholars in the Song Dynasty, and the refinement of tea art was studied, and then to Zhu Yuanzhang in the Ming Dynasty Brewing... Chinese people gradually developed the way of drinking Kung Fu tea. As a result, tea art has also become one of the important carriers of Chinese tea culture. How is the tea art industry developing today? Tea masters know best.

"Tea art has changed the trajectory of my life." Liao Xuehua, chief tea artist of Bama Tea Industry, told China News.

Anxi, Fujian is the hometown of Liao Xuehua and the hometown of Tieguanyin, a famous Chinese tea. At the age of 15, Liao Xuehua entered Anxi Tea Industry Vocational and Technical School and chose the major of tea art; at the age of 18, she entered the workplace and became an ordinary tea artist; in 2018, Liao Xuehua became famous in the industry; at the age of 25, she was elected to Quanzhou The representative of the Municipal People's Congress is one of the few "post-95s" in the delegation.

"Many people are new to tea art, and the first hurdle they have to pass is to avoid burning their hands when holding the bowl. Tea needs to be brewed with boiling water. When I practiced tea art at a tea school, my fingers were burned red or even burned during brewing. Although It is said that there are skills in holding a bowl, but it is difficult to avoid hot hands! This is a compulsory course.” In Liao Xuehua’s view, to a certain extent, good tea art is hot. A boring movement can be practiced repeatedly, hundreds of times, day after day, without interruption, in order to learn something. There is no shortcut to learn tea art well.”

The 300 billion market is in short supply of senior tea masters

Liao Xuehua's bright moment started in vocational education. How to cultivate more "Liao Xuehua", the answer is still in vocational education.

According to the "China Tea Consumption Market Report" released by the China Tea Circulation Association, in 2021, the total domestic sales of tea in the country will exceed 2.3 million tons, and the total domestic sales will jump to 300 billion yuan. China's tea industry is developing rapidly, tea companies have sprung up like mushrooms after a spring rain, stores are expanding rapidly, and the shortage of tea experts has increased sharply.

"In some stores in some places, even if they hire senior tea masters with high salaries, it is often difficult to find one person." Jiao Yang, head of Shenzhen Bama Tea Industry Training School, said.

The Bama Tea Industry Training School, where Jiao Yang works, was established in 2010 and is a private vocational training institution. Since 2019, the school has ushered in a new stage of development. It has trained tens of thousands of students through a combination of online and offline methods. These students come from all over the world, spanning different age groups and social circles, including corporate executives, newcomers in the workplace, and even primary and secondary school students.

"They learn art, either because of their strong interest in tea culture, or because of their demands for a salary increase in the workplace. The highest proportion of the students are still employees of tea companies." Jiao Yang said, "Participate in professional tea art training. , and obtaining the tea art teacher qualification certificate has become one of the important means for them to improve their vocational skills and advance in the workplace."

According to Jiao Yang, some of the students trained by the school have been promoted to store managers of directly-operated stores, some have become regional sales experts, and some have completely fallen in love with the tea industry. .

"Tea lover" re-employment, get qualification certificate "full of skills"

"Participating in school tea art training courses, tuition fees can apply for government subsidies, and it is helpful for work, why not do it?" Chaoshan native Xue Ruting is a "post-90s" who used to be the owner of a flower shop. In 2020, affected by the epidemic, her flower shop closed down and later entered the tea industry.

Xue Ruting's experience is also the epitome of vocational education promoting social employment.

The just-announced 2022 "Government Work Report" mentioned that large-scale vocational skills training will be continued this year, and 100 billion yuan of unemployment insurance funds will be used to support job stabilization and training, so that more workers can master one skill, and "360 billion yuan" will be used. "Going" has a lot of talents.

As a new student of Bama Tea Industry Training School, Xue Ruting introduced that in the course, basic knowledge of tea culture, basic knowledge of tea, tea etiquette and reception, service and sales, and preparation and demonstration of tea art are all compulsory subjects; in addition, tea art is taught. In practice, according to the characteristics of different tea types, the brewing skills of different utensils such as gaiwan, purple clay pot and glass cup are introduced.

"My goals are getting higher and higher, and the next step is to become a senior tea master." After passing the junior tea master exam, Xue Ruting is more confident about her future career development, "Nowadays, young people are reluctant to be tea masters, and they feel that work is very tiring, because There are a lot of skills to learn - flower arrangement, tea art, etiquette, sales, etc. But I personally like tea and feel that after learning these skills, my personal development is more comprehensive".

Zhou Jiali, who is also from Chaoshan, is an early student of Bama Tea Industry School. She has obtained two national primary qualification certificates for tea judges and tea art teachers. She also participated in the tea competition held in Shenzhen and won the third place.

"There is a difference between getting a certificate and not getting a certificate." Zhou Jiali, who has been promoted to the store manager, said, "Tea companies and tea shops recruit tea artists, and the level of the certificate is an important reference factor. If it is a senior tea artist, the salary will definitely be higher. , because you are more professional."

In order to better inherit the tea culture, private-funded vocational education urgently needs guidance and norms

"What kind of talents the market needs, we will cultivate what kind of talents." In Jiao Yang's view, the biggest advantage of private enterprises in running vocational education is to directly connect with the market and reduce useless efforts.

In fact, private enterprises running vocational schools have become a hot topic in the society in recent years. In May 2021, the Ministry of Education of China issued the revised "Implementation Regulations of the Law of the People's Republic of China on the Promotion of Private Education" to actively encourage social forces to hold private vocational education. This includes encouraging enterprises to host or participate in private schools that implement vocational education through sole proprietorship, joint venture, cooperation, etc.

During the two sessions this year, Liu Jinsong, chairman of the Hebei Provincial Federation of Industry and Commerce, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, also told the media that it is necessary to guide vocational education to be socialized and market-oriented, and to guide private enterprises to participate in and organize vocational education.

Aiming at the future development of tea art vocational education, Jiao Yang, a senior practitioner, suggested that the government should encourage and guide qualified and capable well-known tea companies to establish a complete and systematic vocational training system for tea art teachers; support some tea industry development momentum In good areas, the introduction of high-level tea master talents will provide more incentive mechanisms to improve the well-being and social status of the tea master group, thereby stimulating more young people to engage in the tea career.

Joining the tea art industry is also inheriting culture. Liao Xuehua said, "Tea art is not only a means of choosing a career for young people, it is also an important carrier for the interpretation of tea culture. It is even said that the existence of tea art masters is to make more people willing to understand tea and come into contact with tea. A long-standing cultural tradition behind it.”

Because tea art education undertakes the mission of inheriting tea culture, Jiao Yang called on relevant government departments to strengthen industry supervision and guidance, "There are some people in the society who take advantage of the popularity of tea art teacher training, speculate for profit, register companies casually, and set up tea art training institutions. Due to the lack of supervision, the courses are shoddy, and they make huge profits in order to meet the needs of research and certification, which will lower the overall level of vocational education and training for tea art teachers.

Jiao Yang said that at present, the qualification threshold of teachers in tea art training institutions should be raised. Teachers who are engaged in tea art training must have strong professional skills and professional knowledge in order to teach good students and deliver the needed tea art talents to the society.