Maltese students get a taste of Chinese tea culture

VALLETTA — Around 20 students from the University of Malta took part in a Chinese tea-tasting event on the campus on Wednesday to add a special flavor to their Chinese-language course.

For most students, it was their first time receiving an expert introduction to the rich Chinese tea culture and traditional ways of making tea, with special attention to choosing the right water temperature for Chinese tea.

The event was hosted by Confucius Institute at the University of Malta. The master of the event was Sun Yi, a teacher at the institute.

She started the event with a brief introduction to Chinese tea culture, followed by a practical demonstration of handling the different kinds of aromatic tea leaves.

She described the central role of tea in the daily life of Chinese people and taught students how to pronounce "drink", "tea" and "good" in Mandarin.

Then students were put to the test by being asked to form three different sentences with just the three words in a different order in Mandarin.

Exquisite desserts, such as mung bean cakes and fresh flower cakes with edible roses as a major ingredient, accompanied the tea tasting activities, much to the delight of the participants.

"I love Chinese tea very much," says Lexuri Vazquez, a third-year student majoring in international relations.

She says she hadn't really appreciated the difference between black and green tea before. Thanks to the tea tasting, however, this will change, she adds.

"I would love to go to China one day," Vazquez says, adding that she hopes to learn about more aspects of Chinese culture in the future.

Francesco Gellel, a first-year student majoring in European studies, shares this sentiment, saying that the introduction to Chinese tea culture took him a step closer to this goal.

"The tea-tasting event was very relaxing and culturally enriching," he says.

Jackie Theuma, office administrator of the Confucius Institute at the university, says she had tasted different kinds of Chinese tea, as the institute's director Ji Nengwen always shared his tea with her and other colleagues.

"Chinese tea is very nice, and I love it," Theuma says, who has been working at the institute for 11 years, and Chinese culture and language have become an integral part of her life.

For her part, Sun found the success of the event inspirational. "I will spare no efforts to introduce more aspects of Chinese culture through more events for students, and further stimulate their interest in learning Chinese and understanding Chinese culture," Sun says.

Ji says the Confucius Institute holds cultural events as part of its Chinese-language teaching program, to give students an opportunity to better understand what they learn in the classroom.