Hi Steven aka icetea,

Thanks for sharing the pictures.

For those interested, the Wu Wo Tea Ceremony will be held this year in early
November (I believe it's from 2-5 Nov) in Wuyi Shan city. This year's
organiser will be China, last year was Singapore. I hoped you were in
Singapore to feed the mosquitoes? Haha!

Here's my 2-cent worth to Sasha's query:

> Isn't Wu Wo Cha Hui is more like Wu Wo Tea Society? And what meaning do
> you imply in Wu Wo ("without myself" or in french "sans moi")? It looks on
> your taiwanese site like an adoptation of some Japanese ceremoniality...
> What is Wu Wo and how different is it from the basic Gong Fu?
>

1. I think you may call it a tea society, it is gaining a lot of popularity
in Asia, and is spreading to farther shores. Every country has its own
variation to the ceremony, but the basic steps are similar, and the
philosophy is the same: Sans Moi.

2. Without Me is the central philosophy to Wu Wo Cha Hui. The idea is
based on Selflessness, to share tea with friends or strangers without
restraint, without self-pride. Compared to Gong Fu Cha, it is leaned
towards the social gathering to part take the tea, rather than the tea
itself - there's no strict artform to observe, rather, one has to observe
social grace and good manners during the Wu Wo Cha Hui.

3. Interestingly, the Wu Wo Cha Hui is not based on any tea ceremonial
structure, but the the easy simplicity of "traveller's tea kit", comprising
usually of the these few simple items: a thermo flask to hold hot water, 4
cups, 1 pot, a towel to place the cups and pot, and a sitting mat. Several
friends can prepare their own set, and bring along on an outing. When the
time comes to sit and relax, the items are rolled out and each person will
prepare the tea they have brought with them, then when it is ready, the tea
is delivered to the next 4 persons on his or her left, in this manner, each
person will have several cups of tea infront of them. The tea is drunk, the
cups returned, and the process is repeated.

4. The pictures that you see which looked like a seminar, is an exchange of
tea art. People from all over the world will bring along their cultural tea
artform, or an artform they created, and showcase it on the 2nd nite of the
Wu Wo Cha Hui. It is interesting to see all kinds of artform under one
roof, and some of them are very entertaining. I recalled one in Japan,
where an old lady performed sencha chado. It was a short performance, but
her moves entralled the audience that one could hear a pin drop.

Danny