Between a farmer and an electrical engineer, which would you like to be?

Chen Xiqing felt more than pain when he had to return to his home village to plant tea on the family's land after graduating with a college degree in electrical engineering in 1983 in Taipei.

He turned out to be the most respected farmer on the island province. The 44-year-old is recognized as Taiwan's "King of Tea."

In the past two decades he has won 37 championships in tea planting and production in Taipei and in the island's "tea districts" of Taitung and Hualien counties.

His 600 grams of Oolong Tea won the top prize at the second pan-island tea-tasting contest held by the agricultural commission of the province's "Executive Yuan" this May. It was auctioned for US$24,000 after the contest.

The farmer's story of success provides a vivid illustration of the development of Taiwan's tea industry since the 1970s.

Like many other tea farmers on the island, Chen's family was planting and producing the English Assam Tea in the mountains of Taitung County and selling it abroad. They were not yet producing the Oolong Tea for which the island is famous today.

In the early 1980s, living expenses and labor costs in Taiwan rose with the economic boom. Assam Tea from Taiwan became more expensive than that from India and Sri Lanka. The shrinking market created a crisis.

"My father got sick, and the family needed hands. They wanted me back in the fields because my elder brothers all had established lives in Taipei," said Chen.

"Tea planting and production requires great labor. It was difficult for a young man to adapt to it, especially if he had grown up as I did, spending most of my time on schoolwork," he added.

Besides, he was unable to tolerate his father's insistence on the old ways.

"I asked father why he dried the leaves in this way and cured the tea in that way. He replied by saying that people always had been doing so," said Chen.

By the time he went home, the family had abandoned Assam Tea and started producing Oolong Tea.

"But they produced Oolong in the same way as they did the Assam. The tea tasted so bitter that little was sold," said Chen.

The young man sought help from the Tea Research Centre at Taiwan University, as well as from other research institutes in Taipei.

"I learned that tea is a sensitive plant and even slight inaccuracy in the process of its production will greatly reduce its charm," he said.

He was told that his hometown in the island's central mountains provides a perfect environment for growing tea. Throughout the year fog shrouds the area at an elevation of 1,500 meters above sea level.

While tea leaves get moisture in fog, the content of water has to be controlled at the time they are picked. "Usually we pick the leaves only after 10 in the morning, after the dew dries off. The leaves at this time are the best for production of a semi-fermented tea like Oolong," he said.

The picked leaves are "withered," first outdoors in the sun, then indoors. An experienced tea producer can calculate the time needed for the withering process according to temperature and air humidity.

Usually it takes 14 to 17 hours for tea leaves to be withered.

The withered leaves then are blended in air to ferment when they react with oxygen.

"The step takes about 18 hours and the leaves give out a scent only after it," said Chen.

Then it takes another 36 hours for the leaves to be rubbed and kneaded into small balls, the shape of Oolong Tea when it is sold, and to be cured.

"I could not stand the time-consuming procedures at first because I could not sleep for more than 50 hours after the leaves were picked and withered. Now most of the steps are still finished by hand and I am used to them," said Chen.

After five years, the young man won his first championship in a tea-tasting contest held by the government of Taitung County in 1988.

Since then his tea business has boomed and the tea fields of Chen's family in the central mountains cover an area from 800 meters to 1,800 meters above sea level.

"Tea leaves at a certain elevation can be picked only for several days when they reach maturity. With tea trees at different elevations growing at different speeds, we have the best leaves to pick for a whole month," said Chen.

His tea planting and production skills improve constantly as he learns from researchers who serve as judges and from other competitors in tea-tasting contests.

At such a contest, three grams of cured tea leaves from each competitor steep in a cup with a volume of 110 milliliters for five minutes.

More than 10 tea historians and researchers then taste the tea and give a mark to each attendant. The ranking is decided by total scores.

"One can tell from a tea-tasting contest that the job of a tea farmer is graceful indeed and it contributes much to the inheritance of culture and traditions," said Chen.

Although famous, the "King of Tea" still spends most of his time in his family's tea fields and workshops.

"People can choose their careers with more freedom today than at the time of my youth. But I believe one is able to love a job as long as he/she comes to understand it," he said.

(China Daily November 24, 2005)