Lu Huanuan(R) communicates with a tea farmer. [Xinhua/Cao Yiming]

Lu Huanuan, 48, a resident of Pengtang (a village in Xingye, a county in South China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region), has become known far and wide for her excellent tea-making skills. While leading Fengtang's tea plantation cooperative to remarkable success, Lu has been working hard to ensure rural residents' well-being.

Pengtang boasts a long history of tea harvesting and production. However, tea farmers had a hard time earning a profit, by selling freshly picked tea leaves, until 2016, when the village developed tea-processed products.

In early 2016, the government of Xingye County employed technical experts to improve the traditional tea-frying stoves, so the farmers could use the stoves to make better tea. The government also invited teachers, from a school of tea art (in Yulin, a city in Guangxi), to provide technical training and guidance to the farmers, so they could produce better tea. Lu was one of the beneficiaries of the training. With the government's financial support, she bought a tea-processing facility. Given her tremendous efforts to practice and hone her tea-making skills, Lu earned the qualification of tea technical expert and reviewer (within three years). By applying what she had learned in production, she processed her tea into black tea, green tea and other tea products. Gradually, she became rich by selling the products online.

Lu Huanuan brews black tea. [Xinhua/Cao Yiming]

In 2018, Lu established a small studio (in her house), in which she has been making tea and providing training to those who want to learn tea-making skills. As the studio has become known far and wide, an increasing number of people, including those from Beijing, Anhui and other regions of the country, have visited the studio to study under Lu.

Given the amount of work, and given the fact artisanal tea cannot be mass-produced, mechanized techniques have been used to produce tea. However, Lu and other members of the cooperative believe there are unique advantages to handmade tea. For example, given the fact tea might lose its aroma during mechanized processing, handmade tea is usually more delicious than machine-made tea. "We should try our best to pass on the traditional tea-making craft to later generations," says Lu. In 2018, Lu's wonderful tea-art performance earned her first prize during Guangxi's Vocational Skills Competition for Workers.

In May 2021, Lu qualified as a master in making oil tea (in Guangxi). Lu and other members of the cooperative plan to implement, within a short period of time, projects to promote Pengtang's handmade tea. That, in turn, will promote the village's tourism industry.

In December 2021, Lu joined the Party (Communist Party of China). She also vowed to help more rural residents improve their tea-making skills, so they can attain wealth. Lu believes that, in turn, will promote her hometown's rural revitalization. "The tea-growing mountain (in our village) is an invaluable asset. We should try our best to tap the value of tea, so we can live better lives," says Lu.

Lu Huanuan(2nd, L) explains tea-frying skills to tea farmers. [Xinhua/Cao Yiming]

Lu Huanuan(L) explains tea-selection skills to tea farmers. [Xinhua/Cao Yiming]

(Source: Xinhua/Women of China English Monthly January 2022 issue)