Title: Non-verbal Communication

General Information:

• Customary Lore: Tea Customs
• Interview Language: English
• Location of Origin: Wenzhou, China
• Informant: Irene Lam
• Date Collected: 11/01/2021

Informant Data:

Irene grew up in NYC in a Chinese immigrant family. Her mom is from Wenzhou and her dad is from Fuzhou.

Contextual Data:

I asked Irene if there were any Chinese tea rituals or customs that she knew of. Since Irene was born and raised with her parents and grandparents whom are Chinese immigrants she was able to share tea customs that apply in any dining setting and that she learned throughout her life during family gatherings. Starting from the timestamp 1:28 in the voice record, Irene recounts the origin of the custom of tapping three fingers to express gratitude to whoever is serving you tea. In lieu of bowing to express your gratitude, your three bent fingers represents your whole body bowing. One comment that she made throughout our interview that stood out was that the customs revolving around tea involved a lot of “non-verbal communication” (0:49).

Item:

Customs when drinking tea in any setting:

• When you are drinking with someone much older than you, you always pour the tea for them and you have to make sure their cup is never empty.
• If there is no more tea left in the tea kettle, leave the top of the tea kettle open, which indicates to the server that they need to replenish the tea kettle.
• To demonstrate gratitude to whomever is pouring you tea, you slightly bend your pointer, middle, and ring finger and tap them on the table.

Associated File: 

Collector’s Name: Kimberley Rangel

Tags/Keywords:

• Chinese
• Customary Lore
• Tea Custom