Happy Thanksgiving to all!
2019 has been a busy year for Josephine and me. There are so many people to be thankful...
Our JT & Tea team, our vendors, our customers and their families.
One special campaign that I feel I must express my hearty gratitude today. That is “Taiwan Tea:150 Years” campaign.
When I started to talk about launching a campaign to cherish the "Taiwan Tea:150 years" back in 2017, 2018... which indeed I got inspired by our friends of Ceylon Tea then... (*Thanks to Honorable Swarna Gunaratne, Consul General and our good friend, Manik of Q-Trade.)
"But, how ? "
I remember well, Dr. Liu and Josephine did encourage me to do it but they don't really know what I am going to do with this campaign.
Apparently, my fellow Taiwanese tea colleagues in Taiwan, even our official authority who's in charge tea industry policy, don't seem to be interested in this campaign.
That means we have to do this all alone. Yet, I still hold my breath till 2019.
I don't think we are to celebrate, actually nothing to celebrate about, when Taiwan has been colonized for almost 400 years by so many different countries... Taiwan tea industry has been part of Colonized Economy...
Yet, 150 years... it is about time for us to cherish the wisdom, experience and vision...we’ve learned from the history and to re-engineer our future based on the extra-splendid multi-cultural resource Taiwan tea industry has been through. I am also very desperate to share the on going project of a World-Class tea adventure of TTC's ‘Laopi Tea Farm’ and also like to introduce Taiwan’s Single Estate Single Cultivar project that COA / TRES have been working so hard for so long, the TGA's “LightUpTaiwanCha” has been so well done and now over 56 “5Star” ISO-22000 certified tea farms spreading in various tea districts. History has it, and we just have to cherish it!
So we have our campaign moving on during the Year of 2019. "Taiwan Tea:150 Years (1869-2019)" .
First of all, Taiwan Academy Los Angeles Office, Director Emmy Yang, Ashley Sun to host Taiwan Tea Tasting Event @ Westwood, Los Angeles on 4.27.2019 with a big crowd... this is a kick-off for our campaign. Director Tony Ong has been very supportive.
Taiwan's Ambassador, Honorable Stanley Kao's invitation to give a keynote "US/Taiwan Tea Connection" at the famous Twin Oaks in Washington DC on 5.29.2019 is such a great honor to us and also a big push! We got to connect to many Universities' administrators in both US and Taiwan during that presentation. TECOR team there in DC are very helpful for Josephine and me.
DC Hakka friends, Grace Wei , Fen-ying Chang, and their BOD had hosted an "Afternoon Taiwan Tea Party" on 5.31.2019 at Taiwanese Culture Center in DC with Director Chen and COA Grace Lin strong supports. The media friends, Tiffany Chen, Hakka Chang are helpful to spread the good words.
‘World Tea Expo’ is always very nice to us for our promotion. Special thanks to Gary Lynch and Lisa Boalt Richardson, not only to let us use the VIP Lounge across our booth on the show floor, and they also attend the celebration on 6.12.2019. Sensei James Norwood Pratt, Bill Waddington, Reena Shah, Manik... and so many tea friends gathering to help celebrate. Volunteers like Salvador Sosa and his team to take video and serve teas...
L.A. Tea Festival (8.11.2019) and Northwest Tea Festival (9.27.2019) - Both provided us their stages for the campaign. Our hearty appreciation to Reena Shah, Bianca, Brendan, Bhavin, Dhaval, Tek.... and the wonderful couple, Julee Rosanoff and Doug Livingston.
TAGS Seattle President John Chou, and Bellevue Taiwan Center Director Ben Chen co-sponsor "Taiwan Tea:150 Years" event on 9.28.2019 @Bellevue Taiwan Center. Also having a second presentation in a row for the young FASCA (Formosa Association of Student Cultural Ambassadors), which is extremely meaningful.
10.20.2019 in Taipei. Thanks to 'Hakka Affairs Council' invitation to give a speech for the Tai3Route Culture and Art Exhibition @ Songshan Culture & Creative Park... Producer Frankie Fan and Ms 陳弱千’s amazing last minute efforts to get this event on stage...truly obliged.
10.21.2019 in Hsinchu. Yuanpei University President Chih-Cheng Lin and Professor Yi-Huang Chang invite us to share Taiwan tea's history and new direction. We believe we can have a few tea projects here to work together.
10.22.2019 in National Taiwan University. Grateful to Professor Chen Yozen. (Former Director of TRES ) to give a talk in his tea class on the same topic: Taiwan Tea's New Culture: Food Safety, Ecology, and Technology. (*Serendipitously, Josephine received one package of Jin Suang from Professor Chen's assistant, Ms. Tseng. Per Josephine, that is the best tea she has !)
10.23.2019 Josephine and I were on Hakka Radio Station to use Hakka, our mother tongue, to talk about Taiwan tea's history... Thanks to our host, Professor Ming-Chung Wen, and our good friend, 陳彩仁 to make this arrangement. Before we come to the studio, we had a good catch up with Mr. 魏德文, a very successful publisher, and owner of 南天書局, who inspired me for the interest to learn about Taiwan's history.
So many people to thank for, and I think we are very blessed to have all
these good friends.
Thank you, all.
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