Drinking tea in St. John's: a study of diasporic Chinese tea drinking and ethnic identity

Abstract

Although tea has been an important part of Chinese people’s lives for thousands of years, and is often taken along by Chinese tea-lovers when they move to Canada, little attention has been paid to the tea culture of Chinese immigrants in North America, especially from a folkloristic perspective. This thesis, therefore, explores Chinese tea culture by taking St John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador as the research location. Drawing on historical sources, recorded interviews, and participant observation, this study shows that Chinese residents of St John’s negotiate two different tea cultures. By placing their traditional tea drinking practices and the local tea drinking customs into different categories of their food system, Chinese immigrants and students use tea drinking to help define and construct their Chinese identity in the multi-ethnic context of St John’s. Through an analysis of Chinese tea, this thesis hopes to contribute to the study of Chinese foodways and to further the understanding of cultural ethnicity in North America more generally.