“Learning Asia Through Tea”

ASIANetwork is pleased to announce that the first Embodied Learning About Asia Program project, entitled “Learning Asia Through Tea: A Journey Guided by Tea Master Xiao Kunbing,” will be hosted in Spring 2023 by Dr. Dewen Zhang, Associate Professor of History at Randoph-Macon College. Offered in conjunction with Dr. Zhang’s course on “Tea and the Making of the Global World,” the project will bring a leading scholar, tea master, and filmmaker from Southwest Minzu University in Chengdu to share the material and visual culture of tea with students and community members in a series of immersive events over a four-week period.

Students will have the opportunity to learn about the complexities of the global networks of tea exchanges in the historical context and the material culture that these exchanges generated, and they will benefit from the multisensory experience of tea ceremony guided by a knowledgeable and well-respected tea master. The project activities will include tea ceremonies, museum trips, lectures, and workshops, and will afford students the opportunity to create a documentary film and the option to produce a digital project based on their experiences. Dr. Xiao will engage students in a variety of courses across the curriculum, connecting the study of Asia to fields such as food culture, history, religious studies, digital humanities, filmmaking, plant science and medicine.