Cha Cha Thé - When the East meets the West and When Literature meets Delicacy 采采 - 當東方遇見西方 當文學遇上食茶

in #food7 years ago (edited)

No. Literature first, then delicacy.  談文學先,美食... 不急。


"Shi-jing"  《詩經》


"Classic of Poetry" or "Shi-jing"
is one of my favorite ancient Chinese classical reading. It is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, comprising 305 works dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC. You may refer to its wiki link for a more detailed introduction. The reason why I love it is that language in this poetry is unfamiliarly ancient yet its subject is so vivid and resonating with its expression so passionate and full of energy. Yet, when you read this poetry orally, you will find that it's like singing a song without rhythms! I memorize many poems from it - sometimes they provide energy and sometimes they heal your heart. That's how amazing they are. Wisdom from our ancestors. Remarkable!

《詩經》,中國古典文學的上乘之作,甚至是所有中國文學的共同來源。我想我不用多介紹了,可以看看這裡,回憶一下學校教過的東西。說說詩經跟我。詩經幾乎是我最喜愛的古典典籍了(說得好像我讀很多古書一樣,其實沒有),詩經文字充滿一種陌生而古老的感覺,但其題材卻充滿你我熟悉的生活場景("大老鼠大老鼠不要吃我的米",這也是,你相信嗎?)。詩經的音韻與文字安排,可以讓你像唱歌般地吟詠,從其文字表述,就可以感受到那個熱情、自由、奔放的上古時代氛圍,該是因為彼刻禮教的深深束縛都還沒開始吧?

Next, a poem from it.  接下來介紹其中的一首詩歌。


"FOU YI"  〈芣苡〉

Cǎi cǎi fú yǐ, báo yán cǎi zhī.
Cǎi cǎi fú yǐ, báo yán
yǒu zhī. 

Cǎi cǎi fú yǐ, báo yán duó zhī.
Cǎi cǎi fú yǐ, báo yán luó zhī. 

Cǎi cǎi fú yǐ, báo yán jié zhī.
Cǎi cǎi fú yǐ, báo yán xié zhī. 

We gather and gather the plantains; Now we may gather them.
We gather and gather the plantains; Now we have got them.

We gather and gather the plantains; Now we pluck the ears.
We gather and gather the plantains; Now we rub out the seeds.

We gather and gather the plantains; Now we place the seeds in our skirts.
We gather and gather the plantains; Now we tuck out skirts under our girdles.

[From Section "The South of Zhou" (or Zhou Nan), Chapter "Airs of the States" (or Guó fēng), The Classic of Poetry]

You can see from the above phonetic transcription version. Its sentence structure is almost identical! Actually only one Chinese character change per line and it comes out as such a beautiful poem! Talking about the power of words... These poets are the best of the best. As you can see from the translation, it is interpreted to describe daily lives of women during a peaceful and prosperous period in Ancient China. Simple and beautiful, isn't it!?

By the way, plantains here refer to Plantago asiatica, a kind of commonly seen weeds. Not banana trees.

采采芣苡、薄言采之。
采采芣苡、薄言有之。

采采芣苡、薄言掇之。
采采芣苡、薄言捋之。

采采芣苡、薄言袺之。
采采芣苡、薄言襭之。

漫山遍野的芣苢,我們想去采一些回家。采了這麼多的芣苢,我們想將它們放在家裏。

漫山遍野的芣苢,我們把它拾起來。漫山遍野的芣苢,我們把它摘下來。 

漫山遍野的芣苢,我們用衣襟兜起來;采了很多的芣苢,我們用衣襟兜住紮在腰帶上。 

出自《詩經,國風,周南》

此詩結構簡單,每句換一字,卻琅琅上口,表現了婦女們在外採集芣苢(車前草)時,那種愉悅輕鬆的生活樣貌。由於《詩經 國風》的詩多半是朝廷官員從民間采風得來, 這首詩藉由對一群女子採集芣苢的描寫,展現了古代太平盛世時期的平和之美。即便是政令宣導吧,那也是非常高級而成功的手法啊![說明一下,「薄言」是發語詞無意義;「采采」是茂盛貌,後一單「采」字則是採集之意。]



Cha Cha Thé  采采食茶文化


A rather new and delicate brand/company was founded in 2009 with a name inspired by the most frequently used term "cǎi cǎi" in the above Poem (due to different spelling system, the name of the brand becomes Cha Cha). The name tries to capture the essence of traditional Chinese culture, especially those associated with tea. The following is a quote from the company's introduction

Tea as we know, it is from southern China, it is one of the cultural roots of the Han culture. Its golden color has seduced Asia, as well as western countries which consider it to be a symbol of social status and taste: Fortnum & Mason in the U.K. and Mariage Frères in France are well-known examples. Japan sharing with us many cultural traits, has undoubtedly perpetuated the tradition of the ceremony of Tea, while adding the spirit of Zen into it. Although in Taiwan, we pride ourselves to be a country of cultural sophistication, however, until now, there was not any significant Tea brand of our own, positioned on the international stage.
Wang Chen Tsai-Hsia, Designer in Chief, founder and soul of Shiatzy Chen, has always dedicated herself to the renewal of Chinese fashion. After 35 years of leadership in the world of fashion, she spent more than 2 years of reflection to create a new brand “Cha Cha Thé” in a different field, hoping to found new inspiration in developing Chinese aesthetics. 

This brand, in my personal opinion, is the proud of Taiwan, or even the proud of the entire Chinese people. As it is a refinement of our traditional culture and turns it into something modern and chic. The photos here were taken by me in a branch store of Cha Cha The. It is located in a department store so this shop focuses on pastry, freshly baked or gift-boxed. 

「采采食茶文化」是一個創立不到10年的新品牌,大家都稱之為「采采」。這名字就是來自於上面介紹的詩經〈芣苡〉當中最常聽到的「采采」二字, 有華美繁盛之意,用以形容中華文化的豐碩壯美,而另一方面也代表著禮采,引源茶與禮之於漢文化密不可分的關係。 讓我們看看其自己如何介紹品牌(大陸朋友多,我引用簡體中文版本)

源自南中国的茶品,不啻是汉民族的渊源滥觞,因为澄色如金的水相,溶化整个亚洲,甚至西方社会,而欧洲人更标志着地位与品味,然而在精致文化缩影的台湾,始终无法定位出一个属于自己的品牌,代表在国际舞台上。
坚持演义新中国时尚的夏姿•陈,设计总监暨品牌灵魂人物—陈彩霞,屹立于时装舞台三十六年的翘楚,孕酿七百多天取名自诗经「采采」食茶文化的日子,繁茂的样貌与盛心的跨界,希望在汉美学的天空下偶遇一场春雨。 

創立以來,采采提升了台灣的禮品市場與精緻糕點的水準,讓中華文化的內涵得以在其提煉下,以精緻現代化的產品,包括西方概念的糕點,呈現出東西方文化碰撞的美麗火花。我個人認為采采是台灣的驕傲,也是整個大中華族群的驕傲。我在一間百貨公司的采采分店拍攝了這些照片,這間店比較專注在新鮮烘培的糕點方面,當然其著名的禮盒也都陳列出來販售的。

Let's take a closer look at those sexy and elegant little devils!!

來吧!我知道你們等很久了,精緻美麗的糕點,就要出現了!

Feel like having a bite yourself?... hmm.... Let me do it for ya!~~~ :)

想吃吧,沒問題,讓小弟代勞!


The Eating Up  吃給你看

Cha Cha's prices aren't cheap at all, but we can still afford a cheese cake. Thank God!

It costs TWD$180, or USD$6 per piece. So we took one home and ate it with tea. Yummy! When I ate it, I can't help thinking of those happy women three thousand years ago ... 

采采這麼用心,連結文學、文化與精緻糕點,怎麼可能便宜賣?對,有點貴。還好我們還買得起一塊蛋糕,所以帶了一塊乳酪蛋糕回家品嘗。泡了杯茶,切開蛋糕,好吃。

我不禁想起〈芣苡〉詩歌裡,那些三千年前的婦女嘻笑聲 ...



sources for translation and images - 1 ,2, 3, 4


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Just want to mark this - votes and pageviews are the same! :)

Very nice Blog and i am impressed with your knowledge of chinese Poems.
I once had to study chinese poetry When i was studying in China Academy of Art. I was too slow in choosing my elective course, so they ended up putting me in the poetry class. Decifering Chinese poetry is something only few can do well; i am not one of them. One Character can have so many meanings, and words can sounds the same, but mean different things. It really is amazing and China is the only written language that has a continuity back for 5000 years. Chinese written language is also cool because it is also an art form. Calligraphy was the actual elective course i wanted to take :) Are you good at calligraphy?

No, but I used to enjoy it a lot. (you should know that saying no doesn't necessarily mean no in Chinese way... but for me... no means no, but well, good or bad is relative.)

Love for poetry is one thing but Calligraphy is a completely different thing to master, instead of landing foot on two boats one must stick to the field that he or she loves the most and then they will be successful in that field @deanliu

Haha, just hobbies. Nothing near successful here.

大哥, 四书五经都出来了啊。。。点心超吸引人。。

對,以後還哪敢寫吃的呢?!

是人就得吃,人有千萬種,就有千萬種吃法!我下次寫個路邊攤販的美食好了...

大神,不是說價錢,而是你寫吃的都把詩經搬出來,叫我自個胸無半點墨水的人如何寫關於吃的東西呢 :D

那是因為我寫的這個名字來自詩經嘛,下次路邊攤我哪能搞出楚辭來寫呢?不就是「阿土肉燥麵」之類的,可能還沒招牌... 這就寫食物多好吃多便宜,老闆多親切了嘛!~~~~

這不好說,攪不好你把肉燥麵跟玉蒲團給連在一起...

你有才,說明你可以嘛!玉蒲團看來是你的專業了... :)

這個可能要打個NSFW才行。我看還是免了。

四書五經我只讀過論語跟詩經... 論語不喜歡,太僵化,詩經是最愛啊! 這家名字算是打中我要害 .... :-)

我對那個真的一竅不通,我根本沒機會還給老師,因為我還沒有學會,哈哈哈哈好哈

老師表示:那一課剛好颱風來,跳過去了。

師兄,那我可能那個學期沒上課 XDDD

The Shih Ching exerted a profound influence on Chinese literature of the subsequent centuries as a monument of artistic and historical source. In the "songs" section of the "Guo Feng" reflected the manners and customs, the thoughts and feelings of ordinary people, the vicissitudes of his life, social and ethical relationship, contains a criticism of the luxury and immorality of the ruling classes.
I work at a University and we often explore with students of Chinese poetry, but while in the translation. It is often difficult. because sometimes the translators do not accurately convey the meaning of the author. Thank you that you raised such an interesting topic in your blog!

Indeed it's difficult. Even for native Chinese people.

首先,我要說有點兒貨不對辦的,@deanliu不是說吃給我們看嗎?我只看到你吃過的糕點,看不到你吃的樣子。因為沒有付錢,不然就要叫「回水」了。
說回店舖跟食物,老實說以前都見過幾回這家店,應該是我沒什麼文學修養吧,個人對它和它的出品沒多大興趣。不過看過大神的介紹,下回再見到,就去嚐它一嚐!

吃的樣子?我又不是甜心... 就甭看了吧... 哈哈...

青菜蘿蔔各有所好,這挺貴的... 你乾脆省了吧!

好的,我就省了下來,等大神請我吃吧!

Music has no language...It is universal...and china has a great history .... So China's culture Music and poetry will be Amazing...
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碩鼠碩鼠,無食我黍。留一塊配茶吧!

沒有機會飲到采采,下次去台灣時留意一下。如果你有機會去大陸,現在有一家也是賣茶飲的叫喜茶。特別,不錯的。推介!

謝謝,下次注意一下。

忘了說你的文章和排板很好看,值得我們學習!會有機會教對聯 =) ?

謝謝。你是指並排嗎?使用table tr td等html codes... 多試試幾次會比較熟,我也是慢慢摸索的...

台湾的珍珠奶茶最好喝!

現在還有不知春拿鐵(春茶加鮮奶的鮮奶茶)風味更好!!

我准备明年去台湾玩,到时要请教你们哪个好喝!

請你去喝啦!

對阿對阿~ 到時候你要來再告訴我們,請你天天喝, 哈哈哈哈

哈哈哈,提前谢谢了,你们都在台北吗?我过去告诉你们!

我離台北很近!! :)

太好了,我过来告诉你,去饶河夜市去喝奶茶 :D

雖然有點跑題,但是真的好喝。@@

i followed and could eat it all - upvoting too - i think you know me

I know you? not likely.