On Saturday, 20.05.2017, we had the great honour to experience two outstanding representatives of the Beijing Quju-Opera, the famous director Gu Wei (顧威) and the well-known performer Sun Ning (孫寧). Beijing Quju is a very “local” and authentic interpretation of traditional Chinese Opera and Theater. Listening to their lively dialogue about its development and perspectives it almost felt like a little part of Beijing came to Berlin. The way they talked about Quju, what can be considered to be the most important “role” of their life, in which manner they chose particular phrases and emphasised certain words. They made us feel like sitting in the old and charming Hutongs of Beijing.

Talking about charm, it is no surprise that one of the most representative and well known play of this genre is called “The Teahouse” (茶館). Doesn’t this suggest the perfect opportunity to combine such an event with tea? While our distinguished guests were pondering about the importance of culture and arts, its impacts on society and the difficulties on pursuing this way of life, we could clearly feel the similarities to tea. It just seems like culture and art, as well as (human) nature and tea are natural companions.

Offering tea while preparing the event and waiting for its opening already enhanced the atmosphere. While over a cup of tea slowly coming to an end put the conversation into a completely new context. Once again tea revealed itself as a medium and connected the modern venue of Techcode Berlin and the traditional thoughts reflected at the tea table. While offering fresh Wulong Tea from spring 2017 and deliberately chatting about the ups and downs of life, Sun Ning shared some of his Flower Jasmine Tea which he directly brought from Beijing and the scene closed like in an opera…

A big thank you to the LAStammtisch Berlin for the invitation, Lok for his amazing photographs, Yi Nan for helping out with tea cups and Lukas for his support. It was a great pleasure to attend the first performance of the Beijing Quju “The Snuff-Bottle” (煙壺) outside of China.