Venice Biennale of Architecture Taiwanese Hakka Tea Culture Making Waves with Gold Leaf

This year marks the 20th edition of the Venice Biennale of Architecture, one of the largest art events worldwide. +++TEA Space was the only Taiwanese entry selected for this year's Biennale. It is also the first time a piece was made with both professional architecture curating and tea culture expertise at the core.

Hakka Affairs Council (HAC) Deputy Minister Chou Chiang-chieh expressed that the Hakka spirit can be summed up in one phrase: "people and the land are one and the same". Before the start of industrialization in Taiwan, the industriousness of Hakka people was intimately related with the environment. This is also why the Taiwanese Hakka began by planting and preparing tea, forming an ever-lasting connection with this crop. In recent years, HAC and Taiwan's Public Television Service (PTS) co-produced the TV series Gold Leaf, portraying the former glory of the tea industry on Provincial Highway 3. Yet we'd also like everyone to know that other than the renowned Oriental beauty tea, the red oolong and other teas from Luye and Guanshan on Provincial Highway 9 are also important produce of Hakka people. We are extremely grateful to the curating institution for showcasing Taiwan's tea culture at the global stage in Venice, simultaneously enabling Taiwan's Hakka culture to share the international spotlight.

+++TEA Space is the first time professional architecture curating joins forces with a tea culture-specialized non-government organization (NGO) to run a global exhibition and a cultural action plan. "+++TEA Space" stands for: Tree (T), Eco-Friendly (E), and Architecture (A), with the "+" symbol signifying the unity of the three. +Tree refers to sustainable forest ecosystems; +Eco-Friendly consists of proper use of resources and recyclable materials; and +Architecture advocates the inclusion of local culture in buildings. +++TEA Space enables visitors to experience "one world inside one cup". The cyclic design incorporates Taiwan's unique tea ceremony, so that visitors can personally experience the possibilities of sustainability in daily life. Tea sessions are the combination of everything related to tea—the natural environment, the forest, space, tea, people, and culture. All of these are ongoing in the sustainable tea session.

The exhibition was themed "laboratory of the future". It is hoped that Taiwanese Hakka culture as intellectual property, the accomplishments of relevant cultures and industries, and tourism information on Taiwan's Hakka villages can be publicized abroad through the exhibition, yielding a wider variety of cultural exchanges, promotional effectiveness, international renown for Hakka traditional trades, and opportunities for commerce.