Department of Cultural Affairs

Photo from TCCDF
Well-known Nanguan (南管) musician Wang Xinxin performs on May 31 at a reopening and tea-sealing ceremony in the Shin Hong Choon Tea Workshop.

By Yali Chen
 
The Shin Hong Choon Tea Workshop (新芳春茶行), designated by the Taipei City Government as a historic municipal site, has reopened after four years of restoration work.
 
On May 31, Wang Jung-wen (王榮文), Chairman of the Taiwan Cultural & Creativity Development Foundation (TCCDF), and Lu Li-chen (呂禮臻), President of World Tea Union worked together to hold a reopening and tea-sealing ceremony at the Workshop.


Photo from TCCDF
A woman prepares and brews tea at a tea party.


Photo from TCCDF
Wang Jung-wen (second from left), Chairman of Taiwan Cultural & Creativity Development Foundation, and Chen Yu-hsin (second from right), Deputy Commissioner of Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs, attend a tea-sealing ceremony in the Shin Hong Choon Tea Workshop.
 
The tea-sealing ceremony kicked off with a performance by well-known Nanguan musician Wang Xinxin (王心心). Taiwanese ceramics master Chen Ching-liang (陳景亮) also exhibited his artworks that had enjoyed international renown.
 
The Shin Hong Choon Tea Workshop, founded in 1934, is one of the few well-preserved residential-commercial buildings. In 2018, Taipei City’s Department of Cultural Affairs commissioned the Taipei-based TCCDF to take charge of the operation and maintenance of the historic municipal building.


Photo from TCCDF
Themed “Hong Choon Tea Trail – the Golden Age of Taiwanese Tea,” the opening exhibition helps viewers to better understand the history of Taiwanese tea.
 
In 2007, the TCCDF assumed responsibility for the renovation and operation of the Huashan Creative Arts Park and renamed it Huashan 1914 Creative Park. The park now has become one of Taipei’s energetic cultural hubs.
 
Wang said that the TCCDF will use the Huashan experience to run the tea museum. They plan to focus on the culture of Dadaocheng, plus the development of tea cultural and creative industry.


Photo from TCCDF
One exhibition on the second floor has some furniture used by the Wang family.
 
Themed “Hong Choon Tea Trail – the Golden Age of Taiwanese Tea,” the opening exhibition has created a spectacular landscape of terraced tea plantations on the first floor of the tea museum. Viewers can better understand the history of Taiwanese tea exported to Europe and around the world. The exhibition also describes the popularity of Taiwanese tea in the World Expo and the development of the Shin Hong Choon Tea Workshop in the Southeast Asian market.
 
On the second floor are displayed an array of precious historical data and items, including the tea workshop’s plaques, abacuses, books, cabinets, teapots and teacups. This exhibition offers a few glimpses into the life of the Wang family, bringing viewers back to the good old days of 1934 when the tea workshop had just been built.