Tea Items

Just looking back at the previous three postings, I noticed that I have used or shown you pictures of the following terms. We will go through these one by one in this posting; first giving you the standard Chinese names, the Chaoshan hua names and then the English names. One must remember that this is Southern Chinese culture, and previously Northern Chinese people do not know of these items and therefore you might see several Standard Chinese [Putonghua] names for certain items like the tea bowl, which tea is made. [Notice that I did not use the word ‘brew’!] Therefore, in Putonghua, these names might not be settled yet! Of course, as this is our Chaoshan culture [Diosuan bhunghuê], our names for these items are fixed.

Standard Chinese / Chanshan Hua / English
cha2 茶 / dê5茶/ tea
cha2ye4茶葉 / dê(7)bhi2茶米 / tea leaves
Gong1fu1 cha2工夫茶 / Gang1hu1 dê5工夫茶 / Kungfu tea
Tie3guan1yin1鐵觀音 / Tih(8) guang1im1鐵觀音 / Powerful Goddess of Mercy [tea]
Gang1yin1 wang2觀音王/ Guang1im1 uang5觀音王/ Supreme Goddess of Mercy [tea]
bei1zi杯子 / buê1杯 / cups
shiu3水/ zui2水/ water
cha2hai3茶海 / Dê(7)buan5茶盤 / tray
gai4 wan3 蓋碗/ Dê(7) ao1茶甌 / brewing cup
gong1dao4 bei1公道杯 / dê(7)hu5 茶壺 / jug

鐵 – has always been given the definition of iron – iron goddess of mercy. However, this character also mean strong and powerful. I have therefore chosen powerful goddess of mercy for I think it is much more informative and relevant to the goddess of mercy and to the tea.