Apr 15, 2010

The real spirit of Boston Tea Party

People talk about Tea Party more and more. Tea Party... Tax...

I guess, for tea drinkers and non-drinkers, Tea Party could mean enirely differnt things.

Here is my view of Tea Part as a tea drinker.

Tea Party is not about dumping tea, but about drinking good tea from a fair market. Boston Tea Party protested, rejected and destroyed tea from British East India Company. But the partisons didn't stop drinking tea. Throughout the time, people fought for drinking Bohea (which is Hokinese pronunciation for Wuyi tea), which was a "smuggled" tea under the British colonists' law. It's not about choosing oolong over black tea, but about choosing a tea with consumers' free will and with fair market price. 

Today, tea market in America is a free market. But, selecting tea of high quality and fair prices are important issues. Consumers can influence the market and improve the entire tea trade by refusing to be settled with low quality or unfair prices.

And, of course, Boston Tea Party demonstrated how tea can change the world. Tea is part of the history of Independence of America,  just as it started and terminated many wars in Chinese history.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

A Tea Party in the US is now the rejection of (high) taxation and government spending.

Interestingly, in Taiwan, tea farmers are exempted of income or sales taxes. One could say that they embody the ideals of the Tea Partiers in the US!

I also agree with you that in a free market, consumers have a responsibility to judge quality and compare prices.