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摘 要

本文是以茶文化作为切入点，引入茶文化、中西茶叶贸易的历史与发展，分析中西方茶文化的差异，从而使人们更好地理解跨文化国际贸易的发展变化过程及原因，同时也试图得出商务沟通中不同文化习惯之间逐渐改变的规律，研究我国能够在外贸中进行更为顺畅的商务沟通的策略，以达到使茶文化在跨文化商务沟通中的重要性得到认可的目的。

关键词：茶文化；中西方文化差异；跨文化商务沟通

Contents

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………1
2. Literature Review…………………………………………………………2
3. Tea Culture and Cross-culture business communication……………….4

3.1 The history and commercial development of tea culture for centuries…….4

3.2 The significance of tea culture in cross-culture business communication….8

1. Comparative Analysis of Western and Chinese Tea Culture…………….9

4.1 Differences in the origin of tea drinking……………………………………9

4.2 Differences in tea drinking culture……………………………………...10

5. Strategies for Cross-cultural Business Communication…………..13

5.1 The proper choice of tea leaves……………………………………13

5.2 The proper choice of tea sets……………………………………………...14

5.3 The proper tea drinking etiquette………………………………………14

5.4 The proper choice of tea drinking environment…………………………15

6. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..16

Works Cited…………………………………………………………………...18

1. Introduction

Tea is not only an important drink in life, but also carries different cultural connotations for both eastern and Western drinkers. Under the background of current economic globalization, different tea culture of East and West collide and merge in various ways, forming a unique phenomenon of the coexistence of East and West tea culture pluralism. In the cross-cultural comparative study, we can easily find that due to the differences in history, culture, national character, political and national conditions between the East and the West, and tea culture is quite different. The comparison of Chinese and Western tea culture in the cross-cultural perspective will do us a favor to understand better the connotation of Western culture and Chinese culture, and help us to have a deeper understanding of the development and connotation of tea culture.

With the increasing frequency of foreign exchanges and transnational trade, business communication and negotiation with the outside world are becoming more and more important. Only by correctly understanding the cultural differences between different countries can business communication be better carried out, which provides a basis for reaching win-win situation. In business communication, tea culture is one of the details of cultural differences between China and the West, which reflects the collision between different cultures.

Tea culture embodies the distinctive humanistic ideas contained in different cultures. In the process of collision and tolerance, the most widely accepted way of communication can be obtained. It is such details that determine the success of business communication. Therefore, in the context of understanding the cultural differences, this paper mainly through the comparative analysis of the differences between Chinese and Western tea culture, to explore the differences between Chinese and Western culture, so as to summarize the places for reference, to achieve the optimization of business communication.

2. Literature Review

According to literature, quite a few scholars have studied the cultural factors in Chinese tea culture and Western tea culture, but there are few studies on the influence of the differences between Chinese and Western tea culture on cross-cultural business communication activities, but there are more studies on the ideological core, politeness principles and politeness strategies in tea culture. Of course, the study of tea culture involves all aspects. In accordance with the development of tea culture, there are some classifications in the study of the differences between Chinese and Western tea culture.

The author reviews some books and papers, and first gives some examples to briefly analyze the academic monographs on Chinese and Western tea culture.

The second part of Huang Xiaoqin’ s ‘ The Prosperity of Tea Culture and Its Impact on Social Life’ is the fourth chapter. It mainly analyses the development process of tea culture, the development motivation, manifestation and social role of different stages of the development of tea culture, and the role and influence of tea culture on social life from a historical point of view.(Huang 1) Chapter 11 of Chinese Tea Code by Luo Jun mainly introduces the origin of tea. For the reason that it stands in the point of international scientific of view to talk about tea, to taste tea with international sensory science, to balance the nutrition of tea drinking, detailed analysis, clear context, all-round combing of all aspects of Chinese tea.(Luo 3) Li Liang, Ma Rui and Liu Ying are the editors of ‘ The Comparison of Chinese and English Tea Culture in the Cross-Cultural Perspective’, which is a book on the comparison of Chinese and English tea culture in the cross-cultural perspective. Chinese and Western tea culture have a long history and contain affluent material wealth and spiritual wealth. Although British tea culture originates from Chinese tea culture, there are significant differences in material culture, spiritual culture, behavioral culture and language culture between the two cultures.(Li, Ma, Liu 1) In terms of this book, we can see that different tea cultures collide, which can better reflect the cultural characteristics of foreign countries. However, these documents mentioned above only analyze the content of tea culture, but do not mention the impact of tea culture on business activities.

In terms of articles, many articles were discussed from the perspective of cultural differences, and more articles were published in journals of Humanities and social sciences. The results are as follows: Tao Meng’ s ‘On Cultural Differences in Cross-cultural Business Communication starts with the definition of culture’ , analyses the causes of cultural differences, and elaborates the influence of cultural differences on international business activities from four aspects: cultural connotation, mode of thinking, values and religious beliefs. Finally, it summarizes how to correctly deal with the cultural differences in the process of intercultural communication.(Tao 1) Li Shiqiang’ s ‘ Conflict Analysis in Business Communication between China and the West: A Cross-cultural Perspective’. Through case studies, it is pointed out that cultural background differences are an important cause of conflicts in cross-cultural business negotiations. By using the method of comparative analysis, it traces back and compares the different cultural roots between China and the West, and finally puts forward its own views.(Li 2) Similar to the previous part, the analysis of cultural differences in cross-cultural business communication has not been deeply designed in tea culture. However, when it comes to cultural differences, the analysis of the core differences between Chinese and Western thoughts can still provide considerable help for this paper.

Song Mingyang and Zhang Xiaohong’ s paper, ‘Talking about the Role of Tea Culture in the Foreign Exchange between China and the West’, which traces back to its historical origin. Taking the trade between tea and horse and the Silk Road as an example, this paper explores the role of tea as the ultimate carrier of the cultural exchange between China and the West. (Song, Zhang 3) Xiang Zhengxiang and Chen Chong’ s ‘Modern Teahouse in the Context of the Integration of Chinese and Western Cultures comprehensively’ analyses tea drinking culture and tea house art in different countries of China and the West. By comparing different cultures and artistic forms, this paper reveals the essential differences behind the phenomena and reveals the colorful new artistic features of culture and customs brought about by the integration of Chinese and Western cultures. (Xiang, Chen 2) Wu Pingfang’ s essay, ‘Chinese and Western Tea Culture’ s reflection of the Philosophy of Life embodied in tea culture under the background of formation’ is to start with the analysis of the background of the formation of tea culture in China and the West, to explore the philosophy of life interpreted and displayed by the system of tea culture in China, and to comprehensively analyze the philosophy of life embodied in the system of tea culture in the West, so as to deepen the tea from a living element to an emotional carrier.(Wu 1) The research on the differences between Chinese and Western tea culture in these literatures involves various aspects, which enlightens us greatly, not only from the tea itself, but also from the historical, ideological, social background of tea culture, etc. to analyze its impact on cross-cultural business communication activities.

In summary, among the research results of the differences between Chinese and Western tea culture, the differences between Chinese and Western tea culture are the focus of the study, while the research results of tea culture pay more attention to the appeal to enhance the influence of the differences between Chinese and Western tea culture on Sino-Western exchanges. This paper will focus on the analysis of tea culture, with tea trade as its beginning and its impact on cross-cultural business communication.

1. Tea Culture and Cross-culture business communication

3.1 The history and commercial development of tea culture

According to some historical records, tea has been discovered as early as 4000 years ago in Shennong era. At present, Chinese Great Shennongjia region is the place where the Shennong clan was born. It is located in the mountains east of Sichuan and west of Hubei on the current map of China. The greening planting in this area is overwhelmingly flourishing. The book Shennong Tastes Hundred Grasses mentioned that ‘Shennong Tastes Hundred Grasses, and is subjected to seventy-two poisons every day, so tea can be relieved.’(Huang 4) This also provides evidence for the conclusion that tea was discovered in Shennong era in China. Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, tea had been widely popularized in China. Tea culture plays an important role in the hearts of Chinese people.

Tea culture was introduced to the West in the 16th century AD, when the Portuguese in Macau, China, brought tea back from Macau to the West. Since then, tea culture began to spread in Europe and was known by the people of Western countries. Tea was introduced from China in Britain in the 17th century A.D. at that time, and it cost an army of money to import tea through China. Therefore, in the 17th century Britain, the habit of drinking tea was not widely spread. This state lasted until the middle and late eighteenth century, after which British people began to drink tea widely.

Tea was China’s most important and largest export commodity in the 19th century, which once accounted for more than half of China’s total exports. However, by the end of the 19th century, China’s export of tea declined sharply, and was rapidly surpassed by India and Ceylon. By the beginning of the 20th century, China’s export of tea was less than 10% of the world’s total export of tea.(Wang 12) The main reasons for the decline of tea trade in modern China are as follows: backward mode of tea production and absolute disadvantage in competition; insufficient guarantee of tea quality and lack of market competitiveness; numerous miscellaneous taxes and layers of stripping, poor living environment for Chinese tea farmers and tea merchants; years of war affected tea production and trade routes, resulting in market depression; initiative in trade in the hands of foreign businessmen, Chinese tea merchants have a low ability to take risks. In the competition with foreign tea merchants, it is difficult for Chinese tea merchants to win. China’s tea export from prosperity to decline reflects the reality of China’s social and economic development in modern times, and is a prominent manifestation of the crisis in the 19th century.(Fan 6) And this also reveals that China’s commercial tea culture was in urgent need of change and breakthrough at that time.

3.1.1 Business tea culture in tea-horse road

Although the Tea-Horse Road is a specific tea trade activity, its emergence and development, in fact, are the important results of continuous inheritance, until a variety of resource elements are integrated. It can be said that the ancient tea-horse road is an important manifestation of China’s tea products trade activities, which has appeared since the Tang and Song Dynasties, and since the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it has achieved prosperity and development. Provided that we make a comprehensive study of the historical background and the value of the entire Tea-Horse Road, we can see that it contains not only a kind of tea trade culture, but also the cultural exchanges between Han, Tibetan and Yi nationalities.(Shi 4) Ethnic cultural exchange is also a vital factor in the comprehensive presentation of multiculturalism. And from the history of the formation of the Tea-Horse Road, we can see that it actually reflects the tea-drinking activities of people in the border areas of Yunnan. Although it is a trade history of tea products, it also shows rich and perfect national and regional cultures, as well as the general value recognition of the public itself. Therefore, the Tea-Horse Road has developed into the current one for us. The cultural development of a region and the important influence of the history of tea product trade in the process of recognizing the traditional tea culture, we can see that the ancient tea-horse road, as an important way with great cultural connotation and cultural communication function, bears not only a cultural communication mechanism, but also, more importantly, contains rich and perfect tea culture connotation.

Through tea trade and specific exchange activities, China can achieve the deep integration and comprehensive application of multi-cultural elements in the whole area through which the Tea-Horse Road passes. We should clearly recognize that in the thousands of years of Chinese cultural system, tea products, as an important trade element, have formed a cultural system related to tea products trade activities in many regions of China, such as the ‘Wanli Tea Road’ and even the Silk Road. In fact, it is a specific cultural phenomenon formed by the development of tea trade.(Shi 5)

3.1.2 Tea trade in the late Qing Dynasty

Looking back on history, the tea trade in the late Qing Dynasty was full of rugged and bumpy process. At the time of great changes in the world pattern, the Qing government did not make timely and sober adjustments and changes, which caused China to suffer a devastating blow, and China’s tea trade also fell into a slump.(Fan 7)

With the rise of the industrial revolution, when the world has been deeply aware of the importance of advanced production technology to industry, the Qing government in the late Qing Dynasty still stubbornly carried out the state of ‘closed country’, which not only widened the gap between China and Western countries, but also opened the gap between China and some Asian countries with a keen sense of smell. After India and other Oriental countries have already introduced advanced production technology from the west, China’s tea industry is still hovering along the road of traditional production. Compared with the large-scale manufacturing industry chain in the West, most tea gardens in China are family-based, with relatively insignificant production scale and informal tea gardens. Due to the lack of professional guidance, the traditional production methods are far from meeting the needs of the market, and the low productivity of small tea plantations has worn off the patience of British businessmen.

The backward manual roasting method has been criticized by many foreigners. In comparison with the mechanized production method, they are anxious that the Chinese manual roasting method took great health risks, which has become one of the reasons why they choose Indian tea. In their opinions, unscientific processing technology has also directly led to the decline of industrial exports. When the mechanized production mode meets their needs, the advantages of Chinese tea are becoming less and less. What is more noteworthy is that although there are many varieties of tea in China, there is no uniform production standard, nor has it formed its own tea brand. Once it meets a strong opponent, Chinese tea will suffer a great impact. In Chinese tea market, because most of the tea merchants are very scattered small households, the export of tea must rely on the strength of middlemen, in the process of trading, not only increased the transport cost of tea, but also damaged the quality of tea. However, due to the uneven quality of tea, tea may need to be screened uniformly in the later stage, which greatly increases the labor cost of tea. These unfavourable sales methods have allowed the interests-oriented western countries to shift their direction and abandon the Chinese tea market.(Fan 5) Unlike the prosperity of the Tea-Horse Road in the future, the conflict between Chinese tea culture and Western tea culture was severely hit during this period.

3.1.3 The form of modern western tea trade

The Dutch East India Company was the earliest organization engaged in tea trade. In 1619, the Dutch people set up a business Company in Java to buy Chinese tea and sell it to Europe. In the 17th century, almost all the countries in Europe sold tea, which was transported by the Dutch. But the British man quickly broke the Dutch dominance in the tea trade. From then on, the British people monopolized the worldwide tea trade for almost two and a half centuries. London, Britain, has become not only the world’ s largest tea auction center, but also the British have basically manipulated the world tea market. The British have been trying to grow tea in their colonial India. In order to break the British monopoly on the Western tea market, in 1784, the American merchant ship ‘China Queen’ came directly to China to buy tea. Because of its border with China, Russia can directly engage in land-road tea trade with China. In the 1950s, tea accounted for 94% of the total value of Russian imports. In addition, Chinese tea was exported to Australia and other countries in the 18th and 19th centuries. However, as the total amount of Chinese tea purchased by Britain, the United States and Russia are not less than that of China’s tea exports, these three countries are the main overseas markets of Chinese tea.(Hao 40)

3.2 The Significance of tea culture in cross-culture business communication

The spiritual connotation of tea culture makes people have a deeper understanding of tea culture and tea morality. Popularizing tea culture will help purify the spiritual environment and build socialist spiritual civilization. Tea culture as a spiritual civilization has a long history, so that the processing technology of tea continues to develop, tea will also become the dominant drink in the 21st century. Throughout history, tea culture has become the traditional cultural system of the Chinese nation, and also the most outstanding and distinctive cultural system, which has had an extremely important impact on the world.

There are great differences in tea culture between China and the West. In the process of cross-cultural business communication, considering the cultural background of business communication’s participants’ lives, there is a great gap in cultural connotation, cultural values, cultural thinking, religious beliefs and so on. Tea culture in China has a very long history and has rich and profound connotation. Integrating tea culture into cross-cultural business communication process is conducive to effectively exerting the influence of cultural factors on cross-cultural business communication. Tea culture plays a very important role in cross-cultural communication.(Tao 245)

The shaping of national image is not only the interaction of relations between countries, but also a process of cross-cultural communication. By carrying out foreign cultural propaganda activities such as public diplomacy, we can win the hearts and minds of the people and establish the national image. In the course of diplomacy, President Xi Jinping often talked with leaders about tea. At the beginning of 2014, when Xi Jinping visited Belgium and Brazil, tea was the metaphor. In 2015, Xi Jinping attended the Boao forum for Asia. At the opening ceremony, he issued the keynote that the "one belt and one road" is the mainstream of openness, tolerance and complying with regional and global cooperation.

In the process of cross-cultural business communication, many cultural conflicts are not deliberately caused by the participants in business communication, but are often caused by the lack of cultural differences between China and the West. In cross-cultural business communication activities, it is necessary to change the wrong cognitive concepts in the past, regard cultural differences and cultural conflicts as work opportunities, understand problems with a more sincere and patient attitude, and avoid conflicts in cross-cultural business communication as much as possible through continuous understanding and accumulation.

1. Comparative Analysis of Western and Chinese Tea Culture

Tea is a non-alcoholic beverage that is popular all over the world, and the origin of tea is in China. In the 1820s, when Chinese green tea and black tea entered Britain, the trend of tea drinking spread to the British islands, and then became popular all over the world from the colonies. As a result, different tea cultures came into being. Western tea culture led by the United Kingdom and Oriental tea culture headed by China naturally have different aspects among different tea culture.

4.1 Differences in the origin of tea drinking

Tea-producing areas may be the earliest tea-drinking areas, but tea-producing areas and tea-drinking areas are not necessarily the birthplaces of tea-drinking culture. The formation of tea drinking culture needs social development in a certain extent. Therefore, even though tea plants are widely distributed in southwest and Southeast Asia of China, in the Qin Dynasty more than two thousand years ago, they were able to discover and utilize tea and develop it into a culture and cause, only the ancestors of the Bashu area in southwest China who had created agricultural civilization. According to some historical records, tea has been discovered as early as 4000 years ago in Shennong era. At present, Chinese Great Shennongjia region is the place where the Shennong clan was born. It is located in the mountains east of Sichuan and west of Hubei on the current map of China. The greening planting in this area is very flourishing. The book Shennong Tastes Hundred Grasses mentioned that ‘Shennong Tastes Hundred Grasses, and is subjected to seventy-two poisons every day, so tea can be relieved.’ This also provides evidence for the conclusion that tea was discovered in Shennong era in China. Before the Qin and Han Dynasties, tea had been widely popularized in China. Tea culture plays a crucial role in the hearts of Chinese people. Tea culture was introduced to the West in the 16th century AD, when the Portuguese in Macau, China, brought tea back from Macau to the West. Since then, tea culture began to spread in Europe and was known by the public of Western countries. Therefore, in the 17th century Britain, the habit of drinking tea was not widely spread.(Song 23)

This state lasted until the middle and late eighteenth century, after which the British people began to drink tea generally. In 1699, the British East India Company’ s vessel first arrived in Guangzhou and opened direct trade ties with China. Since then, Chinese tea began to be imported into Europe on a large scale. According to statistics, the British East India Company buys almost 50% of the total value of tea every year, and some of the seasons of trade can even reach more than 90%. Since the 19th century, tea has almost become the only commodity that the company purchased in China. After the 1980s, the tea industry in British India, Ceylon, Netherlands Java and other places has gradually developed. Europe has its own source of tea, and its tea drinking custom has its own charm because of the integration of its own cultural essence.(Liu 13)

4.2 Differences in tea drinking culture

To understand the differences between Chinese and Western tea culture, we must realize that as an important part of their respective traditional culture, they not only reflect the spiritual features of their respective nationalities at a specific historical stage, but also reflect their own national characteristics. When tea originated in China was exported to other countries in the world, tea gradually became an important means of livelihood of other nationalities, but also introduced Chinese tea culture into Western society.

Chinese tea sets are mostly ceramics, while western tea sets are mostly silver. Chinese people pay attention to tea ceremony. Westerners also have a set of rituals for drinking tea. If you want to use a tea filter, pour tea until the cup is three-quarters full. Chinese tea is the most pure tea fragrance, and will not add any spices to the tea. Western-style tea in which milk, sugar, lemon slices and honey, etc., to pour tea plus other condiments, the order can not be reversed. Tea is not necessarily required in China, but tea is often accompanied by refreshments in the West, most commonly Scottish butter biscuits, Victorian muffins.

4.2.1 Different ways of drinking tea

There are two ways of drinking tea in China. The one means that tea is brewed with boiled water alone without any ingredients in the process of making tea. And the other refers to adding ingredients such as sugar and salt according to individual taste in the process of making tea, so the way of drinking called ‘mixed drinking’. Generally speaking, ‘mixed drinking’ is less, mainly concentrated in some minority areas in China. For example, Tibetan people like to drink butter tea. This beverage is processed with butter and strong tea. First people put some butter in a special barrel, add salt, then pour into boiled tea juice, pound it repeatedly with wooden handle, in order to make butter and tea juice dissolve into one body, and become emulsified.The British like to add milk and sugar to their tea to change the bitterness and astringency of the tea itself with the help of milk and sugar. In addition, the British will also transform the bulk tea, they prefer to make tea leaves into instant tea foam bags.

4.2.2 Different tea drinking etiquette

There is no specific regulation on tea drinking time in China, and most Chinese drink tea more casually. In Britain, however, there are clear and specific rules for tea drinking time every day. The traditional tea drinking in Britain is divided into three periods: morning tea, afternoon tea and evening tea. Waking up every morning, starting with a cup of strong black tea, refreshing. This is what the delicate Englishman calls ‘breakfast tea’. The first thing British women do when they get up is to boil water and prepare morning tea for their families. The sound of the beeping water woke up the sleeping men and children naturally. Therefore, morning tea, also known as ‘bed tea’, wakes up early in the morning and drinks on an empty stomach, which is a very comfortable enjoyment. It is said that the Queen of England likes this way of life very much. Drinking a cup of morning tea around eleven o’ clock in the morning can relieve people’ s tension. Working people gather in groups of three or five to feel the limited rest time. The lady is in the garden, basking in the warm sunshine, drinking tea and chatting. Lunch tea. Milk tea is the main type of afternoon tea. It can be tailored to individual tastes. Afternoon tea at 4 or 5 p.m. is the essence of English tea ceremony. Authentic Chinese tea is the protagonist of afternoon tea. Traditional English afternoon tea has sandwiches on the bottom, muffins on the middle and seasonal fruit on the top. Afternoon tea became popular in the upper class of Britain in the 17th century. After the mid-18th century, afternoon tea began to enter the life of ordinary Englishmen. And after dinner, they usually have late tea again.

4.2.3 Different spirit of teaism

Chinese tea ceremony stresses the four essentials of ‘harmony, tranquility, pleasure and truth’, which represent four different practices of tea ceremony culture, while English tea ceremony culture is much simpler than Chinese tea ceremony culture. Tea drinking is a social way in Britain, which reflects the elegant style of life of the British people.The emergence of Western tea ceremony is different from that of China, Japan and Korea. The biggest difference is that there is no Zen or religious personage involved in the process of growing up, and that the leaders of the tea ceremony are women speakers of the top wealthy groups. This explains why the ‘afternoon tea party’ is always filled with a magnificent atmosphere, why tea is always so sweet, why tea sets are always so delicate, why tea is always so enjoyable. At the end of the 18th century, noble women took the above tea drinking methods from indoors to outdoors, set up family afternoon tea parties for their families on the lawn of their home garden, invited family members to ‘tea and walking the fields’, that is, ‘tea drinking and walking on the lawn’ , injected a new interpretation into the afternoon tea culture, and deepened the original ‘just a good meal of tea’ into the tea party as happy life. The realm of happiness has fascinated the whole society, and everyone should pursue this kind of happiness.

4.2.4 Differences between Chinese and western teahouses

The space design of tea room is the core of tea room. On the one hand, tea culture provides guidance of design concept for the design of tea room. On the other hand, the space design of tea room is based on visual language and aesthetics, which makes the space of tea room permeated with the fragrance of traditional culture. Therefore, there is a very close relationship between tea culture and the design of tea room.Teahouses have appeared in China long ago. Teahouses were originally places for visitors to talk. With the development of society, tea houses have become places where dignitaries often visit. They set up elegant seats in tea houses for them to drink tea. Later, it gradually evolved into a number of places where people enjoyed wonderful performances while tasting tea. Teahouses in China are mostly retro and elegant. Green potted plants can be found everywhere in teahouses, and wooden materials are the main materials of tables, chairs and benches. Western teahouses originated in the 18th century. Western teahouses mainly provided a social place for people at that time. Most of the people entering the teahouses were noble people in the upper class. At that time, the decoration of Western teahouses was mainly luxurious, and drinking tea in this gorgeous teahouse was also a symbol of nobility status.(Xiang 23)

5. Strategies about Cross-cultural Business Communication

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