Veteran Leader’s Commitment to Tea.doc

Veteran Leader?s Commitment to Tea Mr. Wang Jiayang is the honorary president of China International Tea Culture Institute. He has been with CITCI from the first day of its good fifteen years. Now in his 90s, Wang still attaches great importance to tea culture, firmly believing that tea culture highlights a progressive sense of history and worldview and that tea culture generates a peaceful mindset and caters to people?s inspiration and aspiration. Founder Although tea originated in China, China woke up in modern times to find the world-class tea producer lagged behind some foreign countries in tea studies and tea culture undertakings. After the modernization drive started in the late 1970s, tea gradually became more than a beverage that quenches thirst and maintains health. Tea became part of culture and lifestyle. The new development called for coordinated guidance and promotion. In the autumn of 1990, eight domestic tea-related organizations took an initiative and held an international seminar on tea culture. Tea professionals from China, Japan, Korea, USA, Hong Kong and Taiwan attended the seminar. Wang Jiayang presided over the seminar. Under his leadership, the successful seminar proposed to set up the China International Tea Culture Institute in Hangzhou. Wang was selected to be in charge of making setup arrangements. CITCI was founded in 1993 with the approval of the Ministry of Civil Affairs.It was first affiliated with Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Culture. CITCI is now affiliated with the Ministry of Agriculture. Wang was elected as the first president of CITCI. It soon became a leading organization in tea-related studies and events in China. Local research institutes were set up in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Yunnan, Hunan, Shaanxi and Chongqing. International seminars on tea have convened at regular intervals since then. Scholars and experts from all over the world meet to explore the important issues of tea culture. With the remark