The Full Essay
Origin
After his mother passed away in 2023, the artist Mu Yuming became a “Tea Wanderer” and launched “Tea Giving”.
A social sculpture using tea as medium — transforming fifteen years of personal experience in tea production and ceramic creation into unconditional cross-cultural giving.
Creative lineage: 《Pile Plan》 → 《Five Hundred Arhats》 → 《Tea Giving》 → 《Our Children》
Fifteen Years of Practice
· 2013 Wuyi Mountains | Participated in the full production of Dahongpao tea, tracing its export trade
· 2014 — 2019 Jingdezhen | Five-year residency, ceramic series creation
· 2017 onwards Yunnan | Participated in the full production system of Pu'er tea, from cultivation to making
A History of Tea
Tea is a gentle giving, and also a history of violence.
· British Empire: tea trade accounted for 90% of East India Company profits — “Tea created Britain”
· American Independence: 1773 Boston Tea Party — “Britain lost an empire over tea”
· Opium War: tea trade deficit drove opium exports — “Tea changed everything”
Core Action
Breaking through the boundaries of race, nation, class, culture, and language — letting conceptual art become a flavour anyone can taste.
Starting from everyday vessels and the aesthetics of eating and drinking, to re-organise a platform for human exchange and shared building.
Present Context
Carbon-based life and silicon-based AI working together — humanity enters an entirely new phase.
Not politics, but the aesthetics of living.
Identity suspended: not “Chinese artist”, “monk”, “farmer” — only the one handing you a cup of tea.
Not heroic rescue, but the patience of accompaniment.
Not political opposition, but the shared building of life's aesthetics.
The warmth of a cup of tea is the warmth of fifteen years of labour, the lingering warmth left after history's gunsmoke has cleared.
🔴 In progress · March 2023 — present