Reconsidering the Relations between the Counterfeit and Inferior Tea and the Decline of Modern Chinese Tea Exports:Focusing on Exports to the UK
The problem of counterfeit and inferior tea persisted for a long time in ancient China and spread to Europe with the development of Sino-Western tea trade during the modem era.As a primary con-sumer of tea,Britain inevitably encountered the same problem,which was normal against the background of poor food safety in the UK at that time,and for which some British were also responsible.However,with the British government intensified its efforts to combat food adulteration,and the swift expansion of tea cultivation and production in India,the British began to exaggerate the problem of counterfeit and inferior tea in China,shaping a discourse which essentially equated Chinese tea with counterfeits,contributing significantly to its de-cline in Britain.In a way,the fact that there were fake and inferior products among the Chinese tea imported by the UK had been utilized consciously to stigmatize Chinese tea,in a hidden attempt to suppress Chinese tea in the face of the rising Indian tea industry.
counterfeit tea,Sino-British tea tradeIndian tea industrycompetition of Chinese and In-dian teastigmatization
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