英国茶文化及其对英国民族精神的影响(2)
3.3 The Impact of Afternoon Tea 10
4 The Influence of British Tea Culture on British National Spirit 11
4.1 British Values 11
4.1.1 Keeping up with the Upper Class or the Royal Household 11
4.1.2 Inpidualism 12
4.2 Social Ethics 12
4.2.1 Gentility 12
4.2.2 Female Liberation 13
4.3 Consumer Psychology 14
5 Conclusion 15
Bibliography 17
1 Introduction
With the development of rapid globalization, western culture has invaded in China for many years and has great influence on Chinese culture. However, Chinese thoughts and traditional culture have also brought great impacts on the western world. Tea, in particular, has brought huge changes to western people.
Tea, coffee and cocoa are world's three major beverages and among them, the consumption of tea is the second largest in the world. Such large consumption is not only contributed by Chinese but also foreigners. As common knowledge, tea, originated from China, spread to other countries by sea and land in Tang dynasty. At the beginning of the 17th century, Chinese tea found a good sale in Europe. With the extension, the upper class in Europe, especially in Britain, have developed a habit of drinking tea and gradually it became a culture.
During the over 300 years' history, British tea culture shaped its unique style. It was estimated that about one-third of British people's life was tea time. The golden age of British tea was the Victorian Age. What's more, the world-famous British afternoon tea was also born in the Victorian Age. The afternoon tea used to be an activity which was popular in aristocratic circles but as time went by, it gradually became fashionable among ordinary people. In addition, the steps and tea sets also became simplified. It was obvious that tea had been integrated in British people's life and at the same time, produced effects on every aspect of Britain. The most profound influence was on British national spirit, including British values, social ethics and consumer psychology.
At home and abroad, many scholars have studied British tea culture and its influence on British national spirit and have covered almost every part of this theme. But most of the related materials are introductory and narrative. Beatrice Hohenegger, an Italian writer, published The Story of Tea from East to West in 2006. This book, covering nearly all fields of tea in both east and west, showed the author's comprehensive knowledge about tea. Why are British people fond of drinking tea? Yang jingping (2006) held a view in her thesis, the Chinese Tea in Britain during 17th and 18th Centuries, that tea became popular in Britain because of two main reasons. One was about the price, another was British people's subjective view. These reasons showed British value of keeping up with the upper class. Guo Jun and Mei Xueqin (2003:23-30) analyzed changes of women's position in Victorian Age in their essay, which was also a part of national spirit in Britain.
Although the study about British tea culture and its influence on British national spirit is still in an endless stream, and there does not appear to be much literature introducing British national spirit. This means that there are some more contributions can be made to fill the gap through reading more materials related to this theme.
This paper will first give an overview of the British tea culture. And then the Victorian Age, which is the most remarkable time in British tea history, will be focused on. As for the British national spirit, it will be pided into three parts and we will resort to Guo Jun and Mei Xueqin's essay as a basis to analyze tea's influence on national spirit. Then comes to the conclusion part, which will analyze the British tea culture in multicultural environments.
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