This is not a review.. In this episode, James and Garrett have a very long discussion on (IMO) the best English-language book on pu’erh around. They discuss what they like about the book and dive deeper into some of the topics brought up by Zhang (the author).
2 responses to “Zhang Jinghong’s Ancient Caravans & Urban Chic, a Conversation w/Garrett [Inbetweenisode 155]”
The whole culture of fakery continues to fascinate me and I am so glad you touched upon this again, to the point the Chinese have a number of names for it in either “Kelong” (clone) or “shanzhai” (which references images of bandits!)
It is covered to a full extent in “Fake stuff: China and the rise of counterfeit goods” by Jessicca Yi-Chieh.
A friend of mine has a weekly outing to the popular Shanghai “fake market” on a Sunday as weekly pursuit to experience the highs and lows of some of the fake teas on offer there, as a consumer its something that is worth a try just to get a feel of how bad things can be and how only by tasting tea with eyes, nose, touch and taste do you start to gain knowledge around this issue.
Another interesting read is “Tea Production, Land Use Politics, and Ethnic Minorities: Struggling over Dilemmas in China’s Southwest Frontier” by Po-Yi Hung which gets into village politics around Puerh production and devotes some time to discussing what happens at a village level around social relations and fake tea.
Thanks Jonny, I will need to check those out!