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Puer Tea: Ancient Caravans and Urban Chic . JINGHONG ZHANG . Seattle and London : University of Washington Press , 2013. xi + 249 pp. $30.00. ISBN 978-0-295-99323-2
Book Reviews
Pu'er is a Yunnanese tea with deep historical roots, renowned for its distinctive flavour and health-enhancing properties. It is classified into three categories: "raw" Pu'er tea, which is not fermented; "aged raw" Pu'er tea, which is "naturally" fermented through long-term storage; and artificially fermented Pu'er tea or "ripe tea," which is fermented using technical methods of speeding up the aging process. In China, Pu'er is known as a "drinkable antique" as it can be aged to increase its value. This book is the first study to examine the unique cultural biography of Pu'er tea.
Centring on the concept of "authenticity," the book investigates how the meanings and values of Pu'er tea have been "packaged" by multiple actors at various points in the commodity chain and also how these "packagings" have come to be challenged. Authenticity, Zhang argues, depends on negotiation and is never fixed. To capture the fluidity of authenticity, throughout the book the author deploys the Chinese concept of jianghu, literally "rivers and lakes." Most often used in martial arts fiction, jianghu refers to a...