Cultural Appropriation?

Am I appropriating Chinese tea? Yes. Full stop. Thanks for reading.

I should probably expand my answer.

A few months ago I was served an ad on social media for a fairly elaborate tea set. It wasn’t my style, but it did look pretty cool. I was intrigued enough to start reading the comments. As with most social media posts, the majority of comments were kind and complimentory. However, one comment declared the tea set as cultural appropriation and the comments descended into some pretty heartless debate. There was a great deal of name calling as well as baseless claims. I gotta be honest, I miss the days when an insult session would degrade into “your mama” jokes.

That post connecting tea with cultural appropriation resonated with me. I did quite a lot of introspective thought as well as reading on the subject. It seems that in the most simple of terms, cultural appropriation is about adopting anything into your life from another culture. I see this as a huge problem. Where is the line drawn between acceptable appropriation and inexcusable appropriation? Do we chastise Led Zeppelin for singing old American blues songs? Do we defamate my wife for doing yoga every morning in front of our fire place? What is my punishment for making enchiladas for lunch this afternoon?

In 2017, Oxford Dictionaries entered the phrase into their lexicon. They define cultural appropriation as, “the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.” I do acknowledge that many people do have an unfortunately naive and cavalier attitude towards other cultures. This is probably most prominent during Halloween. I don’t believe that simple costumes should reflect the sacred rights of any culture or people.

I have spent the last 15 years heavily devoted to the study and practice of the Chinese tea ceremony. I have studied the culture, history, and agricultural aspects of tea. While I’ll never know the whole story (or even enough), I do believe that tea is a gift to the world. I have appropriated tea into my life because I find it interesting and because it brings me a great deal of joy. I share the ceremony with other people because they are curious and intrigued. I do my best to honor the practice and I certainly don’t alter the ceremony to fit into my American way of life.

The point is, I don’t feel bad in any way, shape, or form for appropriating tea. More than ever, the last 30 years have made the world remarkably small. Anyone with an internet connection can trade information instantly and tangible goods quickly. It’s incredibly easy to learn about and experience other cultures. There is no longer any excuse for naivete.

As I’m writing this, I can’t help but think about historical implications. Today, with a couple mouse clicks, I can order tea from China or anywhere else. It was not always that easy.

I think it’s now time for a short history lesson. While China is now very open to international trade, that was not always the case. For nearly 3,000 years China kept tea to themselves and very actively worked to prevent the plant from leaving the country. As we know, England was the first country to expand the modern world. The first recorded instance of tea trading was in the mid 9th century. The British seemed to love tea pretty immediately, but it did not become mainstream until the mid 17th century.

For a very long time, China had only one port open to international traders (that’s with almost 20,000 miles of coastline). These travelers were not allowed to leave the port city. The British found this somewhat restrictive and decided to try and acquire their own tea trees so they could just stay home. The Chinese were very reluctant to give over seeds, but there is at least one account where the British were given seeds that were planted and germinated and grew into not a tea plant.

This frustration grew to the point where the Brits sent a Scottish botanist to China for some heavy tea espionage. In the early 1800’s, Robert Fortune (again, Scottish) disguised himself as a Chinese man to sneak into China to steal plants and other tea secrets. I have a hard time thinking the one picture I found is real, because it’s clearly a white man dressed in Chinese clothing. At any rate, Fortune did get what he was after. He was able to bring his knowledge and plants to India (still occupied by the British at the time) to begin cultivation on what has become a hugely successful industry for the country.

I share that story because I don’t want anyone to take cultural appropriation lightly. We need to take time to learn and understand and appreciate. At the risk of sounding cliche, knowledge is power.

Thank you for reading.