While talking with a reporter, the 14-year-old Zhu Jiacheng, skillfully brewed tea, added syrup and ice cubes and whisked the mixture. In about a minute, a cup of White Tea Mojito was complete and the reporter said it tasted quite refreshing and had a strong fragrance of mint and white tea.
Born in 2009, Zhu is now a student at Yucheng Middle School in Tunxi district in Huangshan city, Anhui province. He has been studying tea making techniques on weekends and holidays at Demingshe Tea Arts Vocational Training School for nearly three years.
Zhu Jiacheng shows off his White Tea Mojito. [Photo/xuexi.cn]
"My hometown Huangshan is a place that is rich in tea and the tea-making skills have a rather long history. As part of a younger generation, I want to pass down this intangible cultural heritage and share what I have learned with my classmates," Zhu said.
Zhu is one of many Generation Z (those born in the mid- and late-1990s and before 2010) students at the vocational training school.
Founded in 2015, Demingshe Tea Arts Vocational Training School is one of the earliest professional tea arts vocational training schools in southern Anhui province and has cultivated over 5,000 professionals in the field of tea.
"The innovation of tea-making techniques is not to abandon the traditional arts, but to introduce more ideas and adapt to the diversified lifestyles of young people," said Wang Sun, founder of the school and an inheritor of the Huizhou art of making tea.
"We've carried out various tea-related activities in primary and middle schools, so that more youngsters can feel the charm of tea culture," Wang added.