Stories Still Steeping
Each story begins with a moment—steam rising from an unfamiliar cup, hands shaping clay, or silence shared across languages. These are the tales that asked to be remembered.
When MIT Engineers Met the Pee-Pee Boy: A Tea Culture Surprise
August 25, 2025
MIT engineers studied a cheeky Chinese tea pet that pees when hot water is poured on it. Turns out, it's actually a sophisticated thermometer that predates Galileo's invention.
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Brave Chicken, Take Two
June 14, 2025
After years away from this path, I return not as someone who's mastered cultural research, but as someone willing to listen to the stories behind each tea and do my share of work in recovering the tea world. Sometimes the bravest thing is admitting that you don't have all the qualifications but nonetheless taking actions to cross step by step—supporting communities through storytelling rather than claiming cultural authority.
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Tea After Tea
June 14, 2025
The story of how drinking tea every morning in my Kunming apartment became my education in slowing down and really listening. What I initially experienced as generous hospitality, I now recognize as a lesson in cultural learning. Each extended session revealed layers that hurried tasting would have missed, teaching me the difference between consuming tea and allowing tea to teach.
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Soft Hands, Hard Lessons
June 14, 2025
In Uncle Li's kitchen, I learned that earning the right to witness cultural knowledge requires more than curiosity—it demands preparation, humility, and hands willing to fail safely. What began as business accompaniment became my first lesson in "capturing the value the time gives", teaching me the difference between cultural tourism and authentic learning through patient attention to what time wants to give us.
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