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Chinese tea

Chinese teas can be classified into six distinctive categories: white, green, yellow, oolong, black and post-fermented. Others add categories for scented and compressed teas. All of these come from varieties of the Camellia sinensis plant. Most Chinese teas are cultivated and consumed in China. It is commonly available in Chinese restaurants and grocery shops worldwide. Green tea is the most common type of tea consumed in China.

Within these main categories of tea are vast varieties of individual beverages. Some of the variations are due to different strains of the camellia plant. However, the largest factor in the wide variations comes from differences in tea processing after the tea leaves are harvested. White and green teas are heat-treated soon after picking to prevent oxidization, often called fermentation, caused by natural enzymes in the leaves. Oolong teas are partially oxidized. Black teas are fully oxidized. Other differences come from variations in the processing steps.

White
White tea is usually referred to as the least processed tea. It is delicate and sweet, and usually brewed into a light golden color depending on the variety. Usually, leaves wither in the open air immediately after picking and then dry to prevent any excessive oxidation. White tea is usually harvested and processed under very strict conditions, and for many people, a high shoot to leaf ratio (a large number of leaf buds rather than more mature leaves) is the preferred choice.

Green
For green tea, the tea leaves are harvested from camellia plants and then quickly heated and dried through frying or steaming to prevent excessive oxidation, which can turn the green leaves brown and alter their freshly picked taste.

Black
The difference between black tea and green tea is that during the production process, the tea leaves need to be completely oxidized before hot processing and drying. During the oxidation process, oxygen interacts with the cell walls of tea trees, causing the leaves to turn a rich dark brown to black color, which is famous for red tea.

Oolong
Oolong tea originated in China and was actually transliterated from two words in English, meaning "black" and "dragon". In addition to their inherent meanings, these two words also describe the shape of oolong leaves in a novel state. Oolong tea undergoes a unique semi oxidation process, ranging from 1% to 99%.

Yellow
The production process of yellow tea shares some similarities with green tea, except for the key point of making true yellow tea, which is oxidation before or after drying to give it a yellow appearance. Yellow tea began to be cultivated in the southeastern province of Sichuan, China around 2000 years ago. If you develop the habit of drinking yellow tea regularly, the spleen and stomach can become two beneficiaries; The risk of intake, loss of appetite, and obesity will be reduced.

History
The practice of drinking tea has a long history in China, having originated there. Although tea originated in China, during the Tang dynasty, Chinese tea generally represents tea leaves which have been processed using methods inherited from ancient China. According to legend, tea was discovered by Chinese Emperor Shen Nong in 2737 BC when a leaf from a nearby shrub fell into water the emperor was boiling. The emperor was very interested in this new liquid because it had a pleasant aroma, so he drank the infusion and found it very refreshing, with a pleasant taste. He claims that tea brings vitality to the body; Therefore, tea was invented, but it is considered a medicinal beverage. Tea is deeply woven into the history and culture of China. The beverage is considered one of the seven necessities of Chinese life, along with firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce and vinegar.

Song dynasty
Tea was an important crop during the Song dynasty. Tea farms covered 242 counties during this time. This included expensive tribute tea, which was tea from Zhejiang and Fujian provinces that was exported to Southeast Asian and Arab countries.

In the Song dynasty, tea started to be pressed into tea cakes (usually black tea). Some were embossed with patterns of the Chinese dragon and the Phoenix, and were called exotic names including:

Large Dragon tea cake, Small Dragon tea cake, Surpassing Snow Dragon ball cake, Fine Silver Sprout, Cloud Leaf, Gold Money, Jade Flower, Inch of Gold, Longevity Sprout, Eternal Spring Jade Leaf, Dragon in the Clouds, Longevity Dragon Sprout, Dragon Phoenix and Flower, and Eternal Spring Silver Sprout.

Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty scholar Wen Zhenheng's encyclopedic book Zhǎng Wù Zhì (Treatise on Superfluous Things), volume 12, contains the descriptions of several famous Ming dynasty teas.During Ming, tea was a form of currency also used to pay imperials tribute. Ming dynasty founder Zhu Yuanzhang (also known as the Hongwu emperor) was born to a poor family and understood the difficulties of the lives of farmers. He abolished the compressed tea brick style and replaced it with the whole, loose-leaf tea style, and also declared people instead pay tribute with tea buds. This amendment especially helped relieve tea farmers of some of the pressures of the laborious and complicated tea production processes. These complex processes for farmers included: steaming tea leaves, breaking them down into fine remnants, mixing the powder with plum juice, then baking them with molds to shape into tea bricks.

Customs and etiquette
In some places of China, in restaurants, it is common for customers to clean their bowls and utensils at the table by rinsing them with tea from the pot. Tea may be poured over utensils into one of their bowls, or a larger bowl is may be provided as a waste receptacle for tea used to rinse bowls. In restaurants in China, tea is usually served in lieu of water, and hence tends to be a light drink flavoured.

However, when sipped as a daily beverage, Chinese people tend to use a special personal tea bottle, in which water is allowed to infuse with tea leaves for hours, and sipped continuously. This method, which is more prevalent in day-to-day Chinese life, involves the repeated use of the same tea leaves throughout the day.

Utensils
A traditional Chinese tea set consists of special clay or porcelain teapots, teacups, tea spoons, tea strainers, draining trays, tea forceps (for the leaves), a large forceps (for the tea cups) and occasionally, tea caddies. All of these are kept on a special wooden tea tray with an inbuilt draining arrangement and a holder for the drained water. however, in more modern times, specially built electric hotplates for tea sets are used by some Chinese people.

Tea houses
Chinese tea houses refer to the public place where people gathered to drink tea and spend their spare time. Chinese tea houses have a long history. It first took shape during the Tang dynasty Kaiyuan era (713–714) and became common during the Song dynasty. From the Ming and Qing dynasties, tea house culture became integral to regional culture.

Drinking morning tea is a custom within various provinces regardless of what status or identity people are. People often go to tea house in twos to threes to relax, be entertained, and gather information all while sipping tea. One could find old folks reminiscing over their joys and sorrows, or youth discussing their ambitions.

In 1970s, Chinese tea houses spread to Hong Kong. Some notable ones include “Yen Yen”, “Tsui Heung Yuen”, “Pak Cheuk”, “Yin Bun Lau”, and “Wun Tin”, among others. Merchants would use tea houses as a place for exchanging information and business. For example, a jade merchant might complete a transaction in a tea house.

A tea garden is a tea house which features a Chinese garden or a domestic Chinese garden in which people enjoy their tea.

Chinese tea houses are one of the few traditional social institutions, and their broader social and cultural appeal outweighs their main business. From a historical perspective, it has been closely linked to the living structure of the Chinese people.

Ba-Shu culture and Sichuan teahouses
Sichuan teahouses have various sizes. The large ones have hundreds of seats, while the small ones, only a few. They also have excellent services. Traditional Sichuan teahouses use red copper teapots, tin saucers, teacups with covers made of Jingdezhen porcelain, tuocha- a bowl-shaped compressed tea leaves- and tearoom keepers expert at all manner of work. What's more, Sichuan teahouses have social functions. They play an important role in spreading the state affairs information. People can chat with each other there. They also serve as unofficial courts.

Wu-Yue culture and Hangzhou teahouses
Wu-Yue area is famous for tea producing and green tea produced in Zhejiang province play a decisive role. In Hangzhou, most tearooms are elegant, simple and unsophisticated. They emphasize making tea with good-quality water and tasting tea in an excellent environment in order to achieve the true meaning of tea art.

Tianjin teahouses, Shanghai Fuchaguan teahouses and Guangdong tearooms
Most of the Tianjin teahouses meet the needs of business people from different parts of China. People of various trades drink tea while eating refreshments and appreciating performances which include singing of opera arias, storytelling and dagu (a versified story sung to the accompaniment of a small drum and other instruments).

In the past, Shanghai teahouses are regarded as learned and refined places in Shanghai. Shanghai people called teahouses fuchaguan to express their longing for leisure. The most typical teahouse with local features was situated in the old Chenghuangmiao area.

The old Guangdong tearooms were inexpensive. Regular customers would be served with a cup of tea, and two steamed buns stuffed with diced grilled pork, steamed dumplings with the dough gathered at the top, or dumplings with shrimp stuffing. However, teahouses become different now. Nowadays, customers are provided with a pot of strong tea as soon as they arrive, and have many choices from a great variety of refreshments on the food cart.

Beijing teahouse culture
Beijing teahouses show most of the advantages of other local teahouses. They are known for their various functions, and rich and profound cultural aims.

There are many kinds of Beijing teahouses, which include Shuchaguan, Qingchaguan, Qichaguan, Yechaguan, Dachaguan, and Erhunpu.

Specific tea house types
Teahouse culture made a special contribution to the development of the novel, and shuchaguan was the best evidence to explain. At shuchaguan, tea is only acted as a medium and supplement because people came mainly to listen to storytelling. Storytelling was performed two times a day and a long story would last two or three months. Famous shuchaguan were exquisitely furnished with cane or wooden tables and chairs, and decorated with works of calligraphy and painting in order to build an atmosphere for storytelling. The purpose of drinking tea in shuchaguan is increasing their historical knowledge, killing time and amusing themselves. So shuchaguan were best suited to old people.

Qingchaguan provides places for people from all walks of life to entertain themselves elegantly. In the past, most of the Qingchaguan were simply furnished with square tables and wooden chairs. Teacups with covers were used to serve tea. However, tea was served without refreshment in Qingchaguan.

Qichaguan provides places for customers to play chess. Qichaguan were simply furnished with timber or lumps of wood painted with chess boards, which were partly buried in the ground, or chessboards with benches on both sides. When people played chess while drinking tea, they will feel that the chessboards was like a battlefield of life. Usually they would temporarily forget about their sufferings, and that's why tea was also called wangyoujun (Mr. Worry-free).

People went to Yechaguan to appreciate beautiful gardens. People of Beijing in old times were keen on enjoying beautiful scenes in different seasons. So yechaguan were mostly built in those places with beautiful gardens and nice views. Dachaguan provided tea, food and services to people in various trades such as business men and scholars. In terms of service, it includes Hongluguan, Wowoguan and Banhuguan.

Hongluguan were installed with red stoves which baked Manchurian and Chinese pastries. They served all kinds of pastries, which were smaller and more exquisite than those made by pastry shops. Customers could drink tea while sampling these pastries.

Wowoguan served various refreshment, including aiwowo, steamed sponge cakes, paicha, pengao and sesame seed cakes.

Characterized by a large copper pot, banhuguan suited varied tastes.

Erhunpu served tea without refreshments but provided dining and wining facilities. It supplied customers with food cooked from in-house ingredients or ingredients brought by customers.

Literature
Literature about tea during the Ming dynasty largely focused on tea pickers, with writings and artwork regarding aspects such as tea picking and processing.

Tea-picking Poem - Gao Qi

It is getting warm after the spring rain and thunder,

New tea leaves start sprouting among branches.

Girls with silver hairpins sing folk songs to each other,

Competing to pick the most tea leaves in the shortest time.

They get home with the fresh scent of tea leaves on their hands,

The highest qualities will be sent to the Prefecture first.

The newly baked tea leaves are not tasted yet,

They are packed into baskets and will be sold to Hunan merchants.

Satirical poems and songs were also created and reflected struggles of tea farmers and ridiculed greedy officials. After Mid Ming, the amount of tribute tea soared due to an increased pressure upon citizens by higher bureaucrats. Officials demanded higher taxation and escalation of the requirement of tribute tea. Some citizens began to grow angry with these demands, including poets Gao Qi and Han Bangqi. Although their main occupations were government officials, they were also generally acknowledged writers who voiced their complaints through poems that became widespread folk ballads. Through their writings they requested the reduction of taxation and tributes. However, Gao was accused by the government of "involvement in a rebellion conspiracy” and was executed, while Han was imprisoned by officials wanting to hide their written works.

Fuyang Ballad - Han Bangqi

Tea-picking women and fish-catching men

Feudal officials torture them so they don't even have unscathed skin

How come the Heaven is not humane?

Have people here done anything wrong?

Symbolism and significance
The China famous tea or The Ten Great Chinese Teas  are the ten most notable Chinese teas. Below is a list of ten common teas in China.

Production
The highest grades of white tea, yellow tea, and green tea are made from tender tea shoots picked early spring. These young tea shoots may consist of a single terminal bud, a bud with an adjacent leaf or a bud with two adjacent slightly unfurled leaves. It is generally required that the leaves are equal in length or shorter than the buds.

The more-oxidized tea—such as red or oolong tea—are made from more mature leaves. For example, the Anxi Tieguanyin (grown in the tea region of Anxi in Fujian), is made from one bud with two to four leaves.

Not all high grade green tea is made from tender tea shoots. The highly regarded green tea Lu An Gua Pian is made from more matured leaves.

Traditionally these tender tea shoots are picked before 5 April, or Qingming Festival. The standard practice is to start picking when 5% of the garden is ready, or when the tea buds reach certain size. In some tea gardens, tea shoots are picked daily, or every 2 days.

Tea farmers
Tea households were normally small, family-based operations for tea cultivation. There were also tea merchants who set up tea firms to create their own tea plantations and/or to process tea leaves after buying from local tea farming families. Different from tea households, seasonal workers were often employed by tea firms. Seeking work during the harvesting seasons, they often took boats to Tunxi, Anhui and other places where tea leaves were abundant.

Tea production process
Harvesting tea was heavily dependent on weather conditions, so tea could not usually be produced throughout the entire year. Various weather conditions throughout different areas limited tea to be grown in a few specific regions: Jiangnan, Jiangbei, Hunan and Xinan. These areas provided stable warm weather and rainfall- two essential components of growing tea plants. The general production of loose, whole-leaf teas mainly included: tea seedling plantation, fertilization/weeding/spraying, tea picking, sunning/firing/rolling, and sorting and packaging.

Tea picking
Tea picking was a central component of the entire tea production process. Time spent working and the intensity of labor fluctuated due to the inability to accurately predict weather conditions. This created uncertainties regarding ideal tea picking times. However, generally “the ideal time for picking tea leaves was early morning before sunrise.” Tea pickers would usually leave their homes early and do work using careful techniques efficiently to ensure the leaves were gently picked in whole. To do so, pickers used one or both hands to nip the green stems with their index fingers and thumbs, then held the leaves until they had palms-full before tossing the leaves into their baskets. Women were preferred for this occupation because of their ability to more gently and carefully pick off the whole tea leaves. No matter the age or marital status, women were expected to be capable of performing this duty. However, there were also limitations on women during this time. According to Luo Lin's Explanation of Tea, women were not allowed to participate in any aspect of tea making during their menstrual periods. They were to avoid “female pollution” from their “unclean” bodies.

Sunning, firing and rolling
After picking tea leaves, families first sorted out the damaged or rotten leaves then began the sunning process. In the first stage, reduce its water content to about 60% -70%. This is achieved by placing tea leaves in large grooves on metal wire mesh. Then air passes through them, gently drying them out. This takes 12–17 hours to bend the leaves and prepare to roll them up. This process inhibited water evaporation within tea leaves to promote oxidation. Over-oxidation can alter the taste of the tea to become "grass-like" or thick and bitter, so farmers heated the leaves to stop the oxidation once the desired level was reached- a process known as 'firing'. Then, leaf cells were broken down by gently rubbing the tea leaves- this process helped volatilize the scents and tastes when brewing. Tea leaves were damped then rolled into shapes, making its storage convenient while also allowing sap to squeeze out and provide additional flavoring.

Sorting and packaging
Once the leaves were dried again, they were sorted and packaged and sold. Tea was usually "transported by a train of porters who used carrying poles to transport multiple chests of tea to the shippers", as the tea was largely sold to merchants and also largely produced to be exported.

Trade
When tea gradually became more common in England in the 18th century, most British people tended to purchase tea grown in the Yangtze River Delta and Fujian region. China has experienced declining trends in tea export growth rate since the mid-1990s. Compare to 1980s that the export volume is decreased 232 tons to 170 tons, is around 26.7%, because the coverage of tea safety standards and Maximum Residual Limit of pesticides negatively affected China's exports.

The increase in export of green tea from China has not been commensurate with production. During 2010, China exported 234 M kg of green tea as against 163 metric kg in 2001. Its share of export in the global market has been found to fall from 87% to 78% between 2003 and 2007. However, in 2010, China contributed 79% of the total green tea exported worldwide.

Varieties
Spelling of varieties often reflects English usage, and historical or southern-Chinese pronunciation rather than official modern pinyin, for example; Bohea (武夷茶 wǔyí chá), Congou (工夫 gōngfu), Hyson (熙春茶 xīchūn chá), Souchong (拉普山小種 lāpǔshān xiǎozhǒng), Chunmee (珍眉 zhēnméi), Sowmee (秀眉 xiùméi), Pekoe (白毫 báiháo), Keemun (祁門紅茶 qímén hóngchá). • Green tea

• White tea

• Black tea

• Oolong tea

• Pu-erh tea

• Yellow tea

• Chrysanthemum tea

• Jasmine tea

• Kuding tea

• Medicinal tea

title: Chinese tea


text:
The Motley Fool

The Motley Fool is a private financial and investing advice company based in Alexandria, Virginia. It was founded in July 1993 by co-chairmen and brothers David Gardner and Tom Gardner, and Todd Etter and Erik Rydholm. The company employs over 300 people worldwide.

Company name
The name “Motley Fool” is taken from Shakespeare's comedy As You Like It. It references the one character – the court jester – who could speak the truth to the Duke without having his head lopped off.

Early years
In 1994, The Motley Fool published a series of statements online promoting a nonexistent sewage-disposal company. The messages, which were an April Fool's joke designed to teach a lesson about penny stock investing, garnered widespread attention, including an article in The Wall Street Journal. In August that year, the Gardners parlayed their one-year-old investment newsletter into a content partnership with America Online (AOL). In December, they were profiled in the "Talk of the Town" section of the New Yorker.

In 1996, David and Tom Gardner published The Motley Fool Investment Guide, which ranked on bestseller lists for The New York Times and Bloomberg Businessweek. The book was controversial; Bloomberg wrote about The Motley Fool's "Fanatical following", while a PBS Frontline episode described the company as made up of "20-somethings" giving "so-called advice".

In 1997, the Motley Fool's online presence moved from AOL to its own domain, Fool.com, where it continued to provide investment advice under an advertising-based revenue model.

"Foolish Four" and dot-com bust
In the late 1990s, the Motley Fool publicized their "Foolish Four" method of Systematic trading, adapted from the Dogs of the Dow method for selecting stocks from the Dow Jones Industrial Average based on high dividend yield. They published a book on the topic in 1999. Journalist Jason Zweig criticized the Foolish Four method in 1999. Zweig describes selecting high-dividend yield stocks as a "sensible" strategy, at least on a preliminary level, as such stocks tend to be relatively inexpensive compared to other stocks using various valuation methods. However, Zweig said the Motley Fool staff made outlandish claims such as the ability to "crush mutual funds [in] only 15 minutes a year", used needlessly complicated mathematical formulas and he questioned the method's effectiveness. In 2000, Motley Fool writer Ann Coleman admitted that the Foolish Four method "turned out to be not nearly as wonderful a strategy as we thought".

During the dot-com bubble and market collapse of 2001, the Motley Fool company removed 80% of its staff in three rounds of layoffs.

Expansion
In February 2002, The Motley Fool shifted to a subscription-based business model The company launched its Stock Advisor program, offering subscribers monthly stock picks and premium investment education.

The company also established free and subscription-based businesses in several countries. As of 2023, The Motley Fool has operations in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. In October 2019, the company announced that it was shutting down operations in Singapore. A year later, in October 2020, the company announced that it was also shutting down operations in Hong Kong.

In August 2018, the company launched a personal-finance sub-brand called The Ascent to provide personal finance product reviews and free educational resources.

In September 2019, the Motley Fool launched two more sub-brands. Millionacres provides subscription-based real estate investing advice and real estate resources.

On September 17, 2019, the Motley Fool launched its mobile game, Investor Island. Investor Island is a real-time strategy board game based on investing. Players compete online to destroy each other's bases and gain a monopoly. Players collect stocks that reflect actual market data and give players money based on historical actions in the stock market. The Motley Fools claims that "everyone might just learn a little about the power of investing in the stock market" after playing their game. Investor Island is available on the iOS Appstore.

Legislative efforts
Representatives of The Motley Fool have testified before Congress against mutual fund fees, in support of fair financial disclosure, on the Enron scandal, and the IPO process.

In 1999, the Securities and Exchange Commission proposed Regulation Fair Disclosure, which would require companies to simultaneously give vital information to Wall Street analysts and the public. In December 1999, Motley Fool author Bill Barker wrote an article telling readers to post comments on the SEC's website. The regulation passed, and in the July 2, 2001, edition of The Wall Street Journal, former SEC chairman Arthur Levitt is quoted saying, "Two-thirds of our letters came from Fools. Without them, Reg FD would not have happened".

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: The Motley Fool


text:
Michael Weatherly

Michael Weatherly Jr. (born July 8, 1968) is an American actor, producer, director, and musician, known for playing the roles of special agent Anthony DiNozzo in the television series NCIS (2003–2016, 2024) and Logan Cale in Dark Angel (2000–2002). From 2016 to 2022, he starred as Dr. Jason Bull in Bull, a courtroom drama. He also starred in Meet Wally Sparks.

Early life
Weatherly was born in New York City and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut. His parents are Patricia (née Hetherington) and Michael Weatherly Sr. He is of Irish descent.

Weatherly attended Fairfield Country Day School and graduated from Brooks School in North Andover, Massachusetts in 1986. He attended Boston University, Menlo College, American University, and The American University of Paris but left college to pursue acting.

Career
Weatherly began his acting career with a minor television role on The Cosby Show as Theo Huxtable's roommate. He played the role of Cooper Alden in Loving and later, The City, appearing in the role from 1992 until 1996.

Weatherly moved to Los Angeles, soon landing a role as a series regular on the FOX television series Significant Others with Jennifer Garner, though the show only lasted six episodes. He then met director Whit Stillman who cast him in the 1998 film The Last Days of Disco as Hap, opposite Chloë Sevigny. Weatherly also appeared as a conflicted warlock in the series Charmed during its first season in 1998.

His movie credits include Meet Wally Sparks (1997) with Rodney Dangerfield, Gun Shy (2000) with Liam Neeson, Cabin by the Lake (2000) with Judd Nelson, and the independent film Trigger Happy opposite Rosario Dawson.

Weatherly starred in Dark Angel for the two seasons it was on the air. This role earned him three award nominations, two Saturn Awards for best supporting actor on television in 2001 and 2002, and one Teen Choice award for choice actor in 2001.

In 2003, he appeared as Senior NCIS Special Agent Anthony DiNozzo in two episodes of the CBS series JAG, a role he continued to portray in the spin-off series NCIS. He made subsequent guest appearances on both NCIS: New Orleans (2014) and NCIS: Los Angeles (2015). Together with Pauley Perrette, who played Abby Sciuto, he is one of only two actors who have appeared in all four shows (JAG, NCIS, NCIS: LA, NCIS: NO). In 2004, he starred in the television film The Mystery of Natalie Wood, portraying Robert Wagner. Since 2010, Robert Wagner had made twelve guest appearances on NCIS as Anthony DiNozzo Sr., the father of Weatherly's character.

He was a guest presenter at the Australian Logie Awards of 2007 on May 6, 2007, and was a guest on Rove Live.

Weatherly made his directing debut with the season-eight episode of NCIS titled "One Last Score", which aired March 1, 2011, and also directed the NCIS season-10 episode "Seek" which aired March 19, 2013.

He portrayed Jesus Christ in a YouTube video that also featured comedian Sarah Silverman and was sponsored by a pro-choice organization. In 2015, Weatherly participated in the #Tapped challenge by posting a video of himself dancing to raise money for Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

CBS announced in January 2016 that Weatherly would be leaving NCIS after 13 seasons of starring as main character Anthony DiNozzo. At the same time, the network announced he would star in a new series called Bull in fall 2016, loosely based on the real-life trial consultancy of Dr. Phil McGraw. In 2024, after a cameo appearance on NCIS the week before, it was announced that Weatherly would reprise his role as DiNozzo with on-screen love interest Cote DePablo reprising as Ziva David in a new NCIS spin-off series called NCIS: Tony and Ziva on Paramount+.

Weatherly was a presenter at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards in 2016, and the 40th People's Choice Awards in 2014. He has appeared on numerous talk shows including The Rachel Ray Show, CBS This Morning, Live with Kelly and Ryan, the Today Show, the Late Show, and The Late Late Show with James Corden.

Directing
Weatherly has directed numerous short films, and television episodes from the series NCIS and Bull. He directed the 2017 documentary Jamaica Man, about the life of British expatriate Nigel Pemberton, which premiered at the 2017 Telluride Film Festival. Jamaica Man won "Best Documentary Portrait" at the 2017 Doc LA - Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival, and "Best Documentary" at the 2018 NYC Independent Film Festival. The film was also screened at the 2018 Tiburon International Film Festival and TMFF festival.

Music
Weatherly sings and plays several instruments, including piano and guitar. He has written several songs, including two songs from the NCIS soundtracks, "Bitter and Blue" and "Under the Sun". He played in a band and performed music on his own while pursuing his early career in New York City. Another early project was a video shoot for a karaoke CD: A Taste of Honey's version of "Sukiyaki".

Philanthropy
Weatherly and his wife are involved with nonprofit organizations such as the Tryall Fund, which focuses on improving education and public health in Hanover Parish, Jamaica. They are also involved with Environmental Working Group, an organization focused on environmental consciousness, and Healthy Child Healthy World, a children's health initiative.

Personal life
Weatherly married his Loving/The City co-star Amelia Heinle in February 1995. Their son was born in 1996. They divorced in 1997.

During filming of Dark Angel in January 2000, Weatherly began a relationship with co-star Jessica Alba, leading to their engagement in 2001. The relationship ended in August 2003.

Weatherly married Serbian-Canadian internist Dr. Bojana Janković on September 30, 2009. The couple lives in Manhattan with their two children: a daughter and a son.

Weatherly is the uncle of actress Alexandra Breckenridge.

Legal issues
In January 2018, CBS settled for $9.5 million with actress Eliza Dushku after she was fired from a recurring role on Bull after informing producers of Weatherly's inappropriate behavior on the set. According to documents from the official mediation, Weatherly was recorded on video making comments about spanking Dushku over his knee, soliciting a threesome, alluding to sexual assault in his "rape van", and other inappropriate remarks. After Dushku spoke with producers, Weatherly texted CBS Television Studios' president David Stapf saying he wanted to talk about Dushku's sense of humor, though Stapf pushed back saying "Ms. Dushku made the show better." Days later, showrunner Glenn Caron terminated Dushku's expected role on the show despite opposition from studio executives.

In November 2021, Dushku testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee about her sexual harassment accusations during her time on Bull. She said in her testimony: "In 2017, I was aggressively pursued by CBS to become a co-lead in a show called Bull. I was told that the role would be a six-year commitment to play a smart, strong leading lady — a competent, high-powered lawyer meant to counter balance the existing male lead, and that the role had been written specifically with me in mind. However, in my first week on my new job I found myself the brunt of crude, sexualized and lewd verbal assaults. I suffered near constant sexual harassment from my co-star." Dushku added that Weatherly called her "legs" and talked about his sperm.

In December 2018, when the settlement was reported, Weatherly publicly apologized for the comments, saying "When Eliza told me that she wasn't comfortable with my language and attempt at humor, I was mortified to have offended her and immediately apologized." Dushku responded that Weatherly broke the terms of their settlement by speaking to the press and characterized his apology as "more deflection, denial, and spin." Pauley Perrette and Sasha Alexander, Weatherly's co-stars from NCIS, tweeted in support of him following the accusations. In August 2019, it was reported that both Weatherly and Caron were undergoing leadership training following the settlement.

Awards and nominations
Saturn Awards

 * 2001: Nominated, "Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series" – Dark Angel
 * 2002: Nominated, "Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series" – Dark Angel

Soap Opera Digest Awards

 * 1994: Nominated, "Hottest Male Star" – Loving
 * 1995: Nominated, "Outstanding Younger Lead Actor" – Loving

Teen Choice Awards

 * 2001: Nominated, "Choice TV Actor" – Dark Angel

Doc LA - Los Angeles Documentary Film Festival

 * 2017: Won, "Best Documentary Portrait" – Jamaica Man

title: Michael Weatherly


text:
Dancing Ledge

Dancing Ledge is part of the Jurassic Coast near Langton Matravers in the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset, England. Dancing Ledge is a flat area of rock at the base of a small cliff. A little scrambling is required for access. It is signposted on the South West Coast Path a few kilometres west of Swanage. Dancing Ledge is so called because at certain stages of the tide when the waves wash over the horizontal surface, the surface undulations cause the water to bob about making the ledge appear to dance.

History
The area was used for quarrying of Purbeck stone and the ledge is a straight drop off into the sea which is deep enough for small ships to come right up to the ledge. This depth was exploited by local quarrymen in transporting the stone away from the area. Some of the stone removed by the quarrying was transported by ship direct from Dancing Ledge, round the south coast to Kent in order to construct Ramsgate harbour in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Leisure
A swimming pool was blasted into the rock for the use of local preparatory schools, particularly Durnford School sometime near the beginning of the twentieth century. The last surviving school (The Old Malthouse in Langton Matravers, which closed in 2007) and one of the schools for which the pool was originally created recently arranged for debris, including several large rocks, to be removed, making swimming possible once again. The sea itself is not suitable for swimming, as there is no shoreline, simply a rock shelf under which people have been pulled by the current to their deaths.

The cliffs above the ledge are a popular climbing location, with a small (10m) cliff close to the sea, and a larger (~20m) limestone cliff set back above this. It is also a popular spot for tombstoning.

title: Dancing Ledge


text:
Robert Cray

Robert William Cray (born August 1, 1953) is an American blues guitarist and singer. He has led his own band and won five Grammy Awards.

Early life
Robert Cray was born on August 1, 1953, in Columbus, Georgia, while his father was stationed at Fort Benning. Cray's musical beginnings go back to when he was a student at Denbigh High School in Newport News, Virginia. While there, he played in his first band, The One-Way Street. His family eventually settled in the Tacoma, Washington, area. There, he attended Lakes High School in Lakewood, Washington.

Career
By the age of 20, Cray had seen his heroes Albert Collins, Freddie King and Muddy Waters in concert and decided to form his own band; they began playing college towns on the West Coast. In the late 1970s he lived in Eugene, Oregon, where he formed the Robert Cray Band and collaborated with Curtis Salgado in the Cray-Hawks. In the 1978 film National Lampoon's Animal House, Cray was the uncredited bassist in the house party band Otis Day and the Knights.

1980s
Cray released the album Who's Been Talkin' on Tomato Records in 1980. Two albums on HighTone Records in the mid-1980s, Bad Influence and False Accusations, were moderately successful in the United States and in Europe, where he was building a reputation as a live artist. In 1985, he released the album Showdown! with his hero Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland.

Cray was signed to Mercury Records and in 1986 released his fourth album, Strong Persuader, produced by Dennis Walker, which received a Grammy Award, while the crossover single "Smoking Gun" gave him wider appeal and name recognition. Under the pseudonym "Night Train Clemons", he recorded with Ted Hawkins in 1986. He was invited by Keith Richards to join the backing band for Chuck Berry in the 1987 film, Chuck Berry: Hail! Hail! Rock 'N' Roll, directed by Taylor Hackford. In 1987, Tina Turner invited Cray to be part of her Break Every Rule television special.

By the late 1980s, Cray was an opening act for such major stars as Eric Clapton and sold out larger venues as a solo artist. Cray has generally played Fender guitars (Telecasters and Stratocasters) and there are two signature Robert Cray Stratocasters models available from Fender. The Robert Cray Custom Shop Stratocaster is made in the U.S. in the Fender custom shop and is identical to the guitars that Cray currently plays, while the Robert Cray Standard Stratocaster is a less-expensive model made in Fender's Ensenada, Mexico plant.

1990s
Cray had the opportunity to play alongside John Lee Hooker on his album Boom Boom, playing the guitar solo in the song "Same Old Blues Again". He is also featured on the Hooker album, The Healer; he plays a guitar solo on the song "Baby Lee". The entire Robert Cray Band backs Hooker on the title track of his 1992 album Mr. Lucky, where Cray plays lead guitar, sings, and banters with Hooker throughout the song. The band also appears on two songs off B.B. King's 1993 duet album Blues Summit: the duet between King and Cray, which was written by Cray and Dennis Walker specifically for the project and called "Playin' With My Friends", and the duet between King and John Lee Hooker ("You Shook Me").

In August 1990, Cray played with Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, and Stevie Ray Vaughan at the Alpine Valley Music Theatre in East Troy, Wisconsin, performing "Sweet Home Chicago". This was Stevie Ray Vaughan's final performance before he died in a helicopter accident later that night.

Cray was invited to play at the "Guitar Legends" concerts in Seville, Spain at the 1992 Expo, where he played a signature track, "Phone Booth". Albert Collins was also on the bill on this blues night of the "Legends" gigs.

2000–present
In 2005, Cray was inducted into Hollywood's RockWalk at Guitar Center.

Cray continues to record and tour. He appeared at the Crossroads Guitar Festival, and supported Eric Clapton on his 2006-2007 world tour.

In 2011, Cray was inducted to the Blues Hall of Fame and received the Americana Music Lifetime Achievement Award for Performance in 2017.

After controversy with Eric Clapton about lyrics of the song "Stand and Deliver" by Van Morrison, Cray canceled his participation in Clapton's upcoming 2022 Europe tour.

Robert Cray Band
Current Members:
 * Robert Cray – lead/rhythm guitar, vocals
 * Richard Cousins – bass guitar
 * George Sluppick – drums
 * Dover Weinberg – keyboards

Past Members:
 * Peter Boe – keyboards
 * Al Chez – trumpet
 * Terence F. Clark – drums
 * Les Falconer – drums
 * Kevin Hayes – drums (1989-2008)
 * Wayne Jackson – trumpet
 * Tim Kaihatsu – rhythm guitar
 * Andrew Love – saxophone
 * Ed Manion – saxophone
 * Rocky Manzanares – harp
 * Tom Murphy – drums
 * David Olson – drums
 * Mark Pender – trumpet
 * Jimmy Pugh – keyboards
 * Warren Rand – alto saxophone
 * Curtis Salgado – harp
 * Karl Sevareid – bass
 * David Stewart – keyboards
 * Mike Vannice – saxophone

Discography

 * Studio albums
 * Who's Been Talkin' (1980)
 * Bad Influence (1983)
 * False Accusations (1985)
 * Strong Persuader (1986)
 * Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1988)
 * Midnight Stroll (1990)
 * I Was Warned (1992)
 * Shame + A Sin (1993)
 * Some Rainy Morning (1995)
 * Sweet Potato Pie (1997)
 * Take Your Shoes Off (1999)
 * Shoulda Been Home (2001)
 * Time Will Tell (2003)
 * Twenty (2005)
 * This Time (2009)
 * Nothin but Love (2012)
 * In My Soul (2014)
 * Robert Cray & Hi Rhythm (2017)
 * That's What I Heard (2020)

title: Robert Cray


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Atlantic School of Theology

Atlantic School of Theology (AST) is a Canadian public ecumenical university that provides graduate level theological education and undertakes research to assist students to prepare for Christian ministries and other forms of public leadership. It is located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and its enrolment is approximately 160 degree and non-degree students. Persons of all religious traditions, or none, are welcome to study at AST.

Mission
Atlantic School of Theology is a public ecumenical university that serves Christ's mission by shaping effective and faithful ordained and lay leaders and understanding among communities of faith.

History
Atlantic School of Theology was founded in 1971 and formally incorporated on June 28, 1974, by an act of the Legislature of Nova Scotia. Atlantic School of Theology is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada and by the Maritime Provinces Higher Education Commission.

AST was formed in 1971 through a merger of the following institutions:

 * Faculty of Theology, University of King's College (Anglican Church of Canada)
 * Holy Heart Theological Institute, formerly the Holy Heart Seminary (Roman Catholic Church)
 * Pine Hill Divinity Hall (United Church of Canada)

Theological education has been offered on the property in Halifax since 1878. AST occupies the former campus of Pine Hill Divinity Hall situated on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean in eastern Canada.

The university received its charter to grant degrees in 1974 from the government of Nova Scotia. In 1975, fire destroyed the Holy Heart Theological Institute. In 2002, AST and nearby Saint Mary's University signed a collaboration agreement. The two universities remain independent.

Academic programs
AST's degree programs include the Master of Divinity (MDiv) – offered on campus (30 credits over three years) or in a blended campus/internet format (30 credits over five years, including a work placement) – and the Master of Arts (8 credits as a second theological degree or 18 credits as a first theological degree). The Master of Arts in Religious Studies and Theology is offered in collaboration with Saint Mary's University. The MA degree is usually pursued in preparation for doctoral studies, for vocational formation, or for personal enrichment. The MDiv degree, which is usually pursued in preparation for service to faith communities, may also be undertaken at the honours level (35 credits). Both MDiv and MA students may choose to write a thesis.

Atlantic School of Theology's ecumenical degree programs also prepare students for chaplaincy in the contexts of health care, universities, prisons, and the military.

AST also offers a Graduate Certificate in Theological Studies (10 credits); an Adult Education Certificate in Theological Studies (4 components, fully online); a Diploma in Youth Ministry; and a Diploma in the New Evangelization. An expanding number of Continuing Education offerings is part of AST's non-credit programming.

Independent researchers and scholars, the public, area clergy, and those undertaking sabbaticals are welcome to make use of AST's library resources.

Notable alumni

 * Joseph-Aurèle Plourde - former Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa (Holy Heart Seminary)
 * Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada (2007 - 2019)
 * Richard William Smith, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Edmonton

title: Atlantic School of Theology


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History of tea

The history of tea spreads across multiple cultures over the span of thousands of years. The tea plant Camellia sinensis is native to East Asia and probably originated in the borderlands of southwestern China and northern Myanmar. One of the earliest accounts of tea drinking is dated back to China's Shang dynasty, in which tea was consumed as a medicinal drink. An early credible record of tea drinking dates to the 3rd century AD, in a medical text written by Chinese physician Hua Tuo. It first became known to the western world through Portuguese priests and merchants in China during the early 16th century. Drinking tea became popular in Britain during the 17th century. The British introduced commercial tea production to British India, in order to compete with the Chinese monopoly on tea by stealing green tea leaves from China, transporting them by train/road, resulting in them being fermented and thought fermented tea is the tea drunk in China. Hence the tea drank in the West is mostly fermented and not green fresh tea.

Geographic origins
Camellia sinensis originated specifically around the intersection of latitude 29°N and longitude 98°E, the point of confluence of the lands of southwest China, Tibet, north Myanmar, and northeast India. The plant was introduced to more than 52 countries, from this centre of origin.

On morphological differences between the Assam and Chinese varieties, botanists have long asserted a dual botanical origin for tea; however, statistical cluster analysis, the same chromosome number (2n=30), easy hybridization, and various types of intermediate hybrids and spontaneous polyploids all appear to demonstrate a single place of origin for Camellia sinensis—the area including the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces of China, and northern part of Myanmar.

Yunnan province has also been identified as "the birthplace of tea...the first area where humans figured out that eating tea leaves or brewing a cup could be pleasant." Fengqing County in the Lincang City prefecture of Yunnan province in China is said to be home to the world's oldest cultivated tea tree, some 3,200 years old.

According to The Story of Tea, tea drinking likely began in Yunnan province during the 2nd millennium BC as a medicinal drink. From there, the drink spread to Sichuan, and it is believed that there "for the first time, people began to boil tea leaves for consumption into a concentrated liquid without the addition of other leaves or herbs, thereby using tea as a bitter yet stimulating drink, rather than as a medicinal concoction."

Origin myths

In Chinese legend, Emperor Shennong was drinking a bowl of just boiled water because of a decree that his subjects must boil water before drinking it. Some time around 2737 BC, a few leaves were blown from a nearby tree into his water, changing the color and taste. The emperor took a sip of the brew and was pleasantly surprised by its flavor and restorative properties. A variant of the legend tells that the emperor tested the medical properties of various herbs on himself, some of them poisonous, and found tea to work as an antidote. Shennong is also mentioned in Lu Yu's famous early work on the subject, The Classic of Tea. A similar Chinese legend states that Shennong would chew the leaves, stems, and roots of various plants to discover medicinal herbs. If he consumed a poisonous plant, he would chew tea leaves to counteract the poison.

A legend dates back to the Tang dynasty. In the legend, Bodhidharma, the founder of Chan Buddhism, accidentally fell asleep after meditating in front of a wall for 9 years. He woke up in such disgust at his weakness that he cut off his eyelids. They fell to the ground and took root, growing into tea bushes. Another version of the story has Gautama Buddha in place of Bodhidharma.

China

The Chinese have consumed tea for thousands of years. The earliest physical evidence known to date, found in 2016, comes from the mausoleum of Emperor Jing of Han in Xi'an, indicating that tea was drunk by Han dynasty emperors as early as the 2nd century BC. The samples were identified as tea from the genus Camellia particularly via mass spectrometry, and written records suggest that it may have been drunk earlier. People of the Han dynasty used tea as medicine (though the first use of tea as a stimulant is unknown). China is considered to have the earliest records of tea consumption, with possible records dating back to the 10th century BC. Note however that the current word for tea in Chinese only came into use in the 8th century AD, there are therefore uncertainties as to whether the older words used are the same as tea. The word tu 荼 appears in Shijing and other ancient texts to signify a kind of "bitter vegetable" (苦菜), and it is possible that it referred to several different plants, such as sow thistle, chicory, or smartweed, including tea. In the Chronicles of Huayang, it was recorded that the Ba people in Sichuan presented tu to the Zhou king. The state of Ba and its neighbour Shu were later conquered by the Qin, and according to the 17th century scholar Gu Yanwu who wrote in Ri Zhi Lu (日知錄): "It was after the Qin had taken Shu that they learned how to drink tea."

The first known reference to boiling tea came from the Han dynasty work "The Contract for a Youth" written by Wang Bao where, among the tasks listed to be undertaken by the youth, "he shall boil tea and fill the utensils" and "he shall buy tea at Wuyang". The first record of cultivation of tea also dated it to this period (Ganlu era of Emperor Xuan of Han) when tea was cultivated on Meng Mountain (蒙山) near Chengdu. From the Tang to the Qing dynasties, the first 360 leaves of tea grown here were picked each spring and presented to the emperor. Even today its green and yellow teas, such as the Mengding Ganlu tea, are still sought after.

An early credible record of tea drinking dates to 220 AD, in a medical text Shi Lun (食论) by Hua Tuo, who stated, "to drink bitter t'u constantly makes one think better." Another possible early reference to tea is found in a letter written by the Qin dynasty general Liu Kun. However, before the mid-8th century Tang dynasty, tea-drinking was primarily a southern Chinese practice. It became widely popular during the Tang dynasty, when it was spread to Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. During the Tang dynasty in China, tea was prepared differently than it is today. Instead of steeping tea leaves in hot water, the tea was boiled with various ingredients such as ginger, onions, and spices to create a savory broth. It was not until the Song dynasty that the practice of steeping tea leaves in hot water became popular.

Laozi, the classical Chinese philosopher, was said to describe tea as "the froth of the liquid jade" and named it an indispensable ingredient to the elixir of life. Legend has it that master Lao was saddened by society's moral decay, and sensing that the end of the dynasty was near, he journeyed westward to the unsettled territories, never to be seen again. While passing along the nation's border, he encountered and was offered tea by a customs inspector named Yin Hsi. Yin Hsi encouraged him to compile his teachings into a single book so that future generations might benefit from his wisdom. This became known as the Dao De Jing, a collection of Laozi's sayings.

Tang dynasty writer Lu Yu's Cha Jing (The Classic of Tea)  is an early work on the subject. According to Cha Jing, tea drinking was widespread. The book describes how tea plants were grown, the leaves processed, and tea prepared as a beverage. It also describes how tea was evaluated. The book also discusses where the best tea leaves were produced. Teas produced in this period were mainly tea bricks which were often used as currency, especially further from the center of the empire where coins lost their value. These were made by compressing tea leaves into a dense, round shape that was easy to transport and store. The cakes were valued based on their weight, and they could be traded for other goods or used to pay taxes.

During the Song dynasty, production and preparation of all tea changed. The tea included many loose-leaf styles (to preserve the delicate character favored by court society), and it is the origin of today's loose teas and the practice of brewed tea. A powdered form of tea also emerged. Steaming tea leaves was the primary process used for centuries in the preparation of tea. After the transition from compressed tea to the powdered form, the production of tea for trade and distribution changed once again.

The Chinese learned to process tea in a different way in the mid-13th century. Tea leaves were roasted and then crumbled rather than steamed. By the Yuan and Ming dynasties, unfermented tea leaves were first pan-fried, then rolled and dried. This stops the oxidation process which turns the leaves dark and allows tea to remain green. In the 15th century, oolong tea, where the tea leaves were allowed to partially ferment before pan-frying, was developed. Western taste, however, preferred the fully oxidized black tea, and the leaves were allowed to ferment further. Yellow tea was an accidental discovery in the production of green tea during the Ming dynasty, when apparently sloppy practices allowed the leaves to turn yellow, which yielded a different flavour as a result.

Tea production in China, historically, was a laborious process, conducted in distant and often poorly accessible regions. This led to the rise of many apocryphal stories and legends surrounding the harvesting process. For example, one story that has been told for many years is that of a village where monkeys pick tea. According to this legend, the villagers stand below the monkeys and taunt them. The monkeys, in turn, become angry, and grab handfuls of tea leaves and throw them at the villagers. There are products sold today that claim to be harvested in this manner, but no reliable commentators have observed this firsthand, and most doubt that it happened at all. For many hundreds of years the commercially used tea tree has been, in shape, more of a bush than a tree. "Monkey picked tea" is more likely a name of certain varieties than a description of how it was obtained.

In 1391, the Hongwu emperor issued a decree that only loose tea would be accepted as a "tribute". As a result, tea production shifted from cake tea to loose-leaf tea and processing techniques advanced, giving rise to the more energy efficient methods of pan-firing and sun-drying, which were popular in Jiangnan and Fujian respectively. The last group to adopt loose-leaf tea were the literati, who were reluctant to abandon their refined culture of whisking tea until the invention of oolong tea. By the end of the 16th century, loose-leaf tea had entirely replaced the earlier tradition of cake and powdered tea.

Japan

During the Sui dynasty in China, tea was introduced to Japan by Buddhist monks. Tea use spread during the 6th century AD. Tea became a drink of the religious classes in Japan when Japanese priests and envoys, sent to China to learn about its culture, brought tea to Japan. Ancient recordings indicate the first batch of tea seeds were brought by a priest named Saichō (最澄) in 805 and then by another named Kūkai (空海) in 806. It became a drink of the royal classes when Emperor Saga (嵯峨天皇) encouraged the growth of tea plants. Seeds were imported from China, and cultivation in Japan began.

In 1191, Zen priest Eisai (栄西) introduced tea seeds to Kyoto. Some of the tea seeds were given to the priest Myoe Shonin, and became the basis for Uji tea. The oldest tea specialty book in Japan, Kissa Yōjōki (喫茶養生記), was written by Eisai. The two-volume book was written in 1211 after his second and last visit to China. The first sentence states, "Tea is the ultimate mental and medical remedy and has the ability to make one's life more full and complete." Eisai was also instrumental in introducing tea consumption to the warrior class, which rose to political prominence after the Heian period.

Green tea became a staple among cultured people in Japan—a brew for the gentry and the Buddhist priesthood alike. Production grew and tea became increasingly accessible, though still a privilege enjoyed mostly by the upper classes. The tea ceremony of Japan was introduced from China in the 15th century by Buddhists as a semi-religious social custom. The modern tea ceremony developed over several centuries by Zen Buddhist monks under the original guidance of the monk Sen no Rikyū (千 利休). In fact, both the beverage and the ceremony surrounding it played a prominent role in feudal diplomacy.

In 1738, Soen Nagatani developed Japanese sencha (煎茶), literally simmered tea, which is an unfermented form of green tea. It is the most popular form of tea in Japan today. The name can be confusing because sencha is no longer simmered. While sencha is currently prepared by steeping the leaves in hot water, this was not always the case. Sencha was originally prepared by casting the leaves into a cauldron and simmering briefly. The liquid would then be ladled into bowls and served. In 1835, Kahei Yamamoto developed gyokuro (玉露), literally jewel dew, by shading tea trees during the weeks leading up to harvesting. By the 20th century, machine manufacturing of green tea was introduced and began replacing handmade tea.

Korea
The first historical record documenting the offering of tea to an ancestral god describes a rite in 661 AD in which a tea offering was made to the spirit of King Suro, the founder of the Geumgwan Gaya Kingdom. Records from the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392) show that tea offerings were made in Buddhist temples to the spirits of revered monks. During the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910), the royal Yi family and the aristocracy used tea for simple rites. The "Day Tea Rite" was a common daytime ceremony, whereas the "Special Tea Rite" was reserved for specific occasions. Toward the end of the Joseon dynasty, commoners joined the trend and used tea for ancestral rites, following the Chinese example based on Zhu Xi's text formalities of family.

Stoneware was common, ceramic more frequent, mostly made in provincial kilns, with porcelain rare, imperial porcelain with dragons the rarest. The earliest kinds of tea used in tea ceremonies were heavily pressed cakes of black tea, the equivalent of aged pu-erh tea in China. However, importation of tea plants by Buddhist monks brought a more delicate series of teas into Korea, and the tea ceremony. Green tea, "Jakseol(작설, 雀舌)" or "Jungno(죽로, 竹露)", is most often served. However, other teas such as "Byeoksoryeong(벽소령, 碧宵嶺)" Cheonhachun(천하춘, 天下春), Ujeon(우전, 雨前), Okcheon(옥천, 玉泉), as well as native chrysanthemum tea, persimmon leaf tea, or mugwort tea may be served at different times of the year.

Global expansion
The earliest record of tea in a more occidental writing is said to be found in the statement of an Arabian traveler, that after 879 the main sources of revenue in Canton were the duties on salt and tea. Marco Polo records the deposition of a Chinese minister of finance in 1285 for his arbitrary augmentation of the tea taxes. In 1557, Portugal established a trading port in Macau, and word of the Chinese drink "chá" spread quickly, but there is no mention of them bringing any samples home. In the early 17th century, a ship of the Dutch East India Company brought the first green tea leaves to Amsterdam from China. Tea was known in France by 1636. It enjoyed a brief period of popularity in Paris around 1648. The history of tea in Russia can also be traced back to the 17th century. Tea was first offered by China as a gift to Czar Michael I in 1618. The Russian ambassador tried the drink; he did not care for it and rejected the offer, delaying tea's Russian introduction by fifty years. By 1689, tea was regularly imported from China to Russia via a caravan of hundreds of camels traveling the year-long journey, making it a precious commodity at the time. Tea was appearing in German apothecaries by 1657 but never gained much esteem except in coastal areas such as Ostfriesland. Tea first appeared publicly in England during the 1650s, where it was introduced through coffeehouses. From there it was introduced to British colonies in America and elsewhere.

Portugal and Italy
Tea was first introduced to Europe by Italian traveler Giovanni Battista Ramusio, who in 1555 published Voyages and Travels, containing the first European reference to tea, which he calls "Chai Catai"; his accounts were based on second-hand reports in the polities of the Gulf of Aden; Yemen and Somalia.

Portuguese priests and merchants in the 16th century made their first contact with tea in China, at which time it was termed chá. The first Portuguese ships reached China in 1516, and in 1560 Portuguese missionary Gaspar da Cruz published the first Portuguese account of Chinese tea; in 1565 Portuguese missionary Louis Almeida published the first European account of tea in Japan.

India

Commercial production of tea was first introduced into India by the British, in an attempt to break the Chinese monopoly on tea. The British, using Chinese seeds, plus Chinese planting and cultivating techniques, launched a tea industry by offering land in Assam to any European who agreed to cultivate tea for export. Tea was originally only consumed by Anglicized Indians; it was not until the 1950s that tea grew widely popular in India through a successful advertising campaign by the India Tea Board.

Prior to the British, the plant may have been used for medicinal purposes. Some cite the Sanjeevani plant as the first recorded reference of tea use in India. However, scientific studies have shown that the Sanjeevani plant is in fact a different plant and is not related to tea. The Singpho tribe and the Khamti tribe validate that they have been consuming tea since the 12th century. However, commercial production of tea in India did not begin until the arrival of the British East India Company, at which point large tracts of land were converted for mass tea production.

The Chinese variety is used for Sikkim, Darjeeling tea, and Kangra tea, while the Assam variety, clonal to the native to Assam, was used everywhere else. The British started commercial tea plantations in India and in Ceylon: "In 1824 tea plants were discovered in the hills along the frontier between Burma and Assam. The British introduced tea culture into India in 1836 and into Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in 1867. At first they used seeds from China, but later seeds from the clonal Assam plant were used." Only black tea was produced until recent decades mostly in India, except in Kangra (present-day Himachal Pradesh) which produced green tea for exporting to central Asia, Afghanistan and neighboring countries. India was the top producer of tea for nearly a century but was displaced by China as the top tea producer in the 21st century. Indian tea companies have acquired a number of iconic foreign tea enterprises including British brands Lipton, Tetley, Twinings and Typhoo. Most of the Indian tea garden owners have focused on exports to markets like Europe and Russia, while very few have focused on building their own brands such as Makaibari, Dharmsala Tea Company, and a few others. While India is the largest consumer of tea worldwide, the per-capita consumption of tea in India remains a modest 750 grams per person annually. Recently consumption of green tea has seen a great upsurge across the cities, and regions such as Kangra which were known for their green tea production historically, have seen a resurgence of their green teas in the domestic market.

Iran
Gilan in north of Iran is main production center of Iranian tea. Historically, Lahijan is the first town in Iran to have tea plantations. With its mild weather, soil quality and fresh spring water, Lahijan stands to have the largest area of tea cultivation in Iran. "Lahijan Spring Tea" is the best quality tea produced in the country. Tea is cultivated at other cities of Gilan, for example Fuman and Roudsar.

Taiwan
Taiwan is famous for the making of oolong tea and green tea, as well as many western-styled teas. Bubble tea or "Zhen Zhu Nai Cha" (Mandarin: 珍珠奶茶) is black tea mixed with sweetened condensed milk and tapioca. Since the island was known to Westerners for many centuries as Formosa—short for the Portuguese Ilha Formosa, or "beautiful island"—tea grown in Taiwan is often identified by that name.

United Kingdom
The first record of tea in English came from a letter written by Richard Wickham, who ran an East India Company office in Japan, writing to a merchant in Macao requesting "the best sort of chaw" in 1615. Peter Mundy, a traveller and merchant who came across tea in Fuji in 1637, wrote, "chaa—only water with a kind of herb boiled in it". In 1657, Thomas Garway, a "tobacconist and coffee-man" was the first to sell tea in London at his house in Exchange Alley, charging between 16 and 50 shillings per pound. The same year, tea was listed as an item in the price list in a London coffee house, and the first advertisement for tea appeared in 1658. In 1660 Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary: "I did send for a cup of tee (a China drink) of which I never had drank before." It is probable that early imports were smuggled via Amsterdam or through sailors arriving on eastern boats. The marriage of King Charles II in 1662 to the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza brought the tea drinking habit to court. Official trade of tea began in 1664 with an import of only two pound two ounces for presentation to the king, which grew to 24 million pounds per year by 1801.

Regular trade began in Canton (now Guangzhou), where it was controlled by two monopolies: the Chinese Cohong (trading companies) and the British East India Company. The Cohong acquired tea from 'tea men' who had an elaborate supply chain into the mountains and provinces where tea grew. The East India Company brought back many products, of which tea was just one, which proved one of the most successful. It was initially promoted as a medicinal beverage or tonic but by the end of the 17th century was taken as an all-purpose drink, albeit mainly by the elite, as it was expensive. Tea was traded in significant amounts by the 18th century, when tea was being sold by grocers and tea shops in London. By the 1720s black tea overtook green tea in popularity as the price dropped, and early on British drinkers began adding sugar and milk to tea, a practice that was not done in China. By the 1720s European maritime trade with China was dominated by exchange of silver for tea. As prices continued to drop, tea became increasingly popular and by 1750 had become the British national drink. A fungus reduced coffee production in Ceylon by 95% in the 19th century, cementing tea's popularity. The escalation of tea importation and sales over the period 1690 to 1750 is mirrored closely by the increase in importation and sales of cane sugar: the British were not drinking just tea but sweet tea. Thus, two of Britain's trading triangles converged: the sugar sourced from Britain's trading triangle encompassing Britain, Africa and the West Indies and the tea from the triangle encompassing Britain, India and China.

In China, the Qing dynasty Qianlong Emperor wrote to King George III in response to the Macartney Mission's request for trade in 1793: "Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its borders. There is therefore no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own produce." Tea had to be paid in silver bullion, and critics of the tea trade at this time would point to the damage caused to Britain's wealth by this loss of bullion. As a way to generate the silver needed as payment for tea, Britain began exporting opium from the traditional growing regions of British India (in present-day Pakistan and Afghanistan) into China. Although opium use in China had a long history, the British importation of opium increased fivefold between 1821 and 1837, and usage of the drug became more widespread across Chinese society. The Qing government attitude towards opium, which was often ambivalent, hardened because of the social problems created by drug use and took serious measures to curtail importation of opium in 1838–39. Tea had become an important source of tax revenue for the British Empire, and the banning of the opium trade and thus the creation of funding issues for tea importers was one of the main causes of the First Opium War.

While waging war on China was one of Britain's tactics, it also began to use India for growing tea. After tea plants were smuggled out of China, plantations were established in areas such as Darjeeling, Assam, and Ceylon. As an attempt to circumvent its dependence on Chinese tea, the East India Company sent Scottish botanist Robert Fortune to China to purchase and bring out of China tea plants, which were then taken to India. With the exception of a few plants which survived in established Indian gardens, most of the Chinese tea plants Fortune introduced in the north-western provinces of India perished. Due to the British preference and fashion for a strong dark tea brew, which was discovered to be best made from the native varieties of tea plant in India Assam subspecies (Camellia sinensis var. assamica), it proved more important for the development of production there. However the technology and knowledge that was brought from China was instrumental in the later flourishing of the Indian tea industry in Assam and Sri Lanka. From 1940 to 1952 tea was rationed but coffee was exempted.

Tea remained very important in Britain's global trade, contributing in part to Britain's global dominance by the end of the 18th century. To this day tea is seen worldwide as a symbol of 'Britishness', but also to some, as a symbol of old British colonialism.

The Americas
The drinking of tea in the United States was largely influenced by the passage of the Tea Act and its subsequent protest during the American Revolution. Tea consumption sharply decreased in America during and after the Revolution, when many Americans switched from drinking tea to drinking coffee, considering tea drinking to be unpatriotic. The American specialty tea market quadrupled in the years from 1993 to 2008, now being worth $6.8 billion a year. Specialty tea houses and retailers also started to pop up during this period.

Canadians were big tea drinkers from the days of British colonisation until the Second World War, when they began drinking more coffee like their American neighbors to the south. During the 1990s, Canadians begun to purchase more specialty teas instead of coffee.

In South America, the tea production in Brazil has strong roots because of the country's origins in Portugal, the strong presence of Japanese immigrants, and because of the influences of Argentina's yerba mate culture. Brazil had a big tea production until the 1980s, but it has weakened in the past decades.

Australia
The Aboriginal Australians drank an infusion from the plant species leptospermum. Upon reaching Australia, Captain Cook noticed the aboriginal peoples drinking it and called it tea. Today the plant is referred to as the "ti tree".

Through colonisation by the British, tea was introduced to Australia. In fact, tea was aboard the First Fleet in 1788. In 1884, the Cutten brothers established the first commercial tea plantation in Australia in Bingil Bay in northern Queensland Nerada Tea. In 1883, Alfred Bushell opened the first tea shop in Australia in Queensland. In 1899, Bushell's sons moved the enterprise to Sydney and began selling tea commercially, founding Australia's first commercial tea seller Bushell's Company.

In 2000, Australia consumed 14,000 tonnes of tea annually. Tea production in Australia remains very small and is primarily in northern New South Wales and Queensland. Most tea produced in Australia is black tea, although there are small quantities of green tea produced in the Alpine Valleys region of Victoria.

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is renowned for its high quality tea and as the fourth biggest tea producing country globally, after China, India and Kenya, and has a production share of 9% in the international sphere. The total extent of land under tea cultivation has been assessed at approximately 187,309 hectares. The plantations started by the British were initially taken over by the government in the 1960s but have been privatized and are now run by plantation companies which own a few estates or tea plantations each. Ceylon tea is divided into 3 groups as Upcountry, Mid country and Low country tea based on the geography of the land on which it is grown.

Africa
The Somali Ajuran empire which established bilateral trading ties with Ming dynasty China in the 13th century brought with them a myriad of commodities including tea. Africa has seen greatly increased tea production in recent decades, the great majority for export to Europe and North America respectively, produced on large estates, often owned by tea companies from the export markets. Almost all production is of basic mass-market teas, processed by the crush, tear, curl method.

title: History of tea


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Maggie L. Walker

Maggie Lena (née Draper Mitchell) Walker (July 15, 1864 – December 15, 1934) was an American businesswoman and teacher. In 1903, Walker became both the first African American woman to charter a bank and the first African American woman to serve as a bank president. As a leader, Walker achieved successes with the vision to make tangible improvements in the way of life for African Americans. Disabled by paralysis and a wheelchair user later in life, Walker also paved the way for people with disabilities.

Along with her leadership of the Independent Order of St. Luke, Maggie Walker was also involved with the NAACP, The National Association of Colored Women, the National Urban League and National Negro Business League, and the United Order of Tents.

Walker's restored and furnished home in the historic Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond, Virginia has been designated a National Historic Site, operated by the National Park Service.

Childhood
Maggie Lena Draper was born on July 15, 1864, the daughter of Elizabeth Draper and Eccles Cuthbert. Her mother, a former slave, was an assistant cook at the Van Lew estate in Church Hill of Richmond, Virginia, where she met Cuthbert, an Irish American journalist for the New York Herald, based in Virginia. There is no record of a marriage between Draper and Cuthbert. Draper was employed by Elizabeth Van Lew, an abolitionist and philanthropist who had been a spy for the Union during the Civil War (1861–1865) in the Confederate capital city of Richmond. Draper married William Mitchell, a butler at the Van Lew estate, soon after Maggie Walker's birth. In 1870, Maggies's half-brother, Johnnie Mitchell was born to Elizabeth and William Mitchell.

After William Mitchell became headwaiter at the Saint Charles Hotel, the Mitchell family moved to their own home on College Alley off of Broad Street nearby Miss Van Lew's home where Walker and her half-brother Johnnie were raised. The house was near the First African Baptist Church which, like many black churches at the time, was an economic, political, and social center for the local black community. After the untimely death of William Mitchell, Walker's mother supported her family by working as a laundress. Walker attended the newly formed Richmond Public Schools and helped her mother by delivering clean clothes.

When she was fourteen years old, Walker joined the local council of the Independent Order of St. Luke. This fraternal organization was originally established as a burial society in 1867 in Baltimore, Maryland by Mary Prout. The Independent Order of St. Luke ministered to the sick and aged, promoted humanitarian causes, and provided long-term economic and social support in the post-slavery, Reconstruction-era United States by acting cooperatively to provide African Americans with access to education, healthcare, banking, and insurance, among other services..

Teaching career
After graduating from the Richmond Colored Normal School in 1883, she taught for three years at her former school, the Valley School, also known as the Lancasterian School for a wage of thirty-five dollars a month. Her employment ended once she was married, in accordance with school policy against employing married women.

Women's Union
While working at Valley School she also worked part time as an insurance agent with the Woman's Union and took night classes in accounting. The Woman's Union (WU) was a cooperative organization of women engaged in businesses to meet the needs of Richmond Virginia's black community.

Independent Order of St. Luke
After leaving her teaching position in 1886, Walker devoted herself to the Order and rose steadily through its ranks. She served in numerous capacities of increasing responsibility for the Order, from that of a delegate to the biannual convention to the top leadership position of Right Worthy Grand Secretary in 1899. Walker saved the Independent Order of St. Luke from the brink of collapse after the financial mismanagement of its previous leader, William Forester, doubling the number of members within her first year at the top. Walker's social change activities with the Independent Order of St. Luke demonstrated her keen consciousness of oppression and her dedication to challenge racial and gender injustice.

A pioneering insurance executive, financier and civic icon, she established the Juvenile Branch of the Order in 1895 while serving as grand deputy matron. This branch encouraged education, community service, and thrift in young members.

Maggie L. Walker served as the leader of the order until her death in 1934. Soon after, Walker's daughter-law, Harriet N. F. Walker, took over her position and led the order until 1957.

Establishment of the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank
In 1902, she published The St. Luke Herald, a newspaper for the organization. Shortly after, she chartered the St. Luke Penny Savings Bank. Walker served as the bank's first president, which earned her the recognition of being the first African American woman to charter a bank in the United States. Charles Thaddeus Russell was Richmond's first black architect and he designed the building for Walker. The St. Luke Penny Savings Bank's leadership also included several female board members. Later Walker agreed to serve as chairman of the board of directors when the bank merged with two other Richmond banks to become The Consolidated Bank and Trust Company, which grew to serve generations of Richmonders as an African-American owned institution.

Personal life
On September 14, 1886, in Richmond, she married Armstead Walker Jr. (1860–1914), a brick contractor. They adopted a daughter, Polly Anderson, and had three sons: Russell Eccles Talmadge Walker born in 1890; Armstead Mitchell Walker born in 1893, but died seven months later; and Melvin DeWitt Walker who was born in 1897. The Walkers purchased a home in 1904 at 110$1⁄2$ East Leigh Street, within the African American Jackson Ward neighborhood of Richmond. It was enlarged over the years to accommodate their children's families.

On June 20, 1914, Walker's son, Russell Walker, at age 0, shot and killed his father, Armstead, having mistaken him for a burglar, for whom both he and his father had been searching. Russell was arrested and charged with murder and, after five months awaiting trial, was declared innocent. The loss left Walker to manage a large household. Her work and investments kept the family comfortably situated.

Russell, however, never recovered from the incident and after eight years battling depression and alcoholism, died November 23, 1923. After Russell's death, his wife Harriet, or Hattie, and their daughter Maggie Laura Walker, moved in with Maggie Walker in Richmond. Hattie became a trusted advisor to Maggie within the Independent Order of St. Luke, quickly moving up the ranks.

Walker was inducted as an Honorary Member of the Nu Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta sorority at the chapter's first meeting in 1926.

Legacy
In 1905, Walker was featured alongside other African American leaders, such as Mary Church Terrell, T. Thomas Fortune, and George Washington Carver in a poster titled, "101 Prominent Colored People".

Walker received an honorary master's degree from Virginia Union University in 1925, and was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 2001.

Walker's image was included in the 1945 painting Women Builders by William H. Johnson as part of his Fighters for Freedom series.

In Walker's honor Richmond Public Schools built a large brick high school adjacent to Virginia Union University. Maggie L. Walker High School was one of two schools in the area for black students during the Jim Crow era; the other was Armstrong High School. Generations of students spent their high-school years at the school. It was totally refurbished to reopen in 2001 as the regional Maggie L. Walker Governor's School for Government and International Studies.

The St. Luke Building held the offices of the Independent Order of St. Luke, and the office of Maggie L. Walker. Walker's daughter-law, Harriet N. F. Walker, honored Maggie Walker's memory and worked to preserve her legacy. As late as 1981, Walker's office was preserved as it was at the time of her death in 1934. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982. The National Park Service operates the Maggie L. Walker National Historic Site at her former Jackson Ward home. In 1978 the house was designated a National Historic Site and was opened as a museum in 1985. The site states that it "commemorates the life of a progressive and talented African-American woman. She achieved success in the world of business and finance as the first woman in the United States to charter and serve as president of a bank, despite the many adversities. The site includes a visitor center detailing her life and the Jackson Ward community in which she lived and worked and her residence of thirty years. The house is restored to its 1930s appearance with original Walker family pieces."

The National Park Service summarizes Walker's legacy with the statement, "Through her guidance of the Independent Order of St. Luke, Walker demonstrated that African American men and women could be leaders in business, politics, and education during a time when society insisted on the contrary."

Walker was honored as one of the first group of Virginia Women in History in 2000. On July 15, 2017, a statue of Walker, designed by Antonio Tobias Mendez, was unveiled at the Maggie L. Walker Memorial Plaza on Broad Street in Richmond. The bronze, 10-foot statue shows a depiction of how she lived, with her glasses pinned to her lapel and a checkbook in hand.

In 2020, Walker was one of eight women featured in "The Only One in the Room" display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.

title: Maggie L. Walker


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Panda! Go, Panda!

Panda Kopanda (パンダ・コパンダ) is a children's Japanese animated film, first released in 1972. It was created by the team of Isao Takahata (director), Hayao Miyazaki (writer, layout, scene design), Yoichi Kotabe (animation director) and Yasuo Otsuka (animation director, character design). This short film was released in Japan at the height of the panda craze, initiated in September 1972, when the government announced the loan of a pair of giant pandas from China to the Ueno Zoo as part of panda diplomacy.

A success in Japanese theaters, its creators followed up with Panda Kopanda and the Rainy-Day Circus in 1973, which was also a success. In 1974, Takahata, Miyazaki and Kotabe would create the landmark anime series Heidi, Girl of the Alps. In 1985, Takahata and Miyazaki would found Studio Ghibli.

Panda Kopanda is known in North America by the title, ''Panda! Go, Panda!'' The two short films are available on DVD and Blu-ray in Japan, and on DVD in North America.

Story
The plot follows Mimiko (ミミ子), a bright little girl left alone when her grandmother leaves on a trip to her grandfather's memorial service in Nagasaki. Making a few stops at some local stores, Mimiko comes home to her house in a bamboo grove and finds a baby panda named Panny (Pan-Chan) sleeping on the back doorstep. She quickly makes friends with the little panda, and invites him in for a drink. His father, PapaPanda, soon comes to visit, and they decide to become a family after PapaPanda offers to be Mimiko's father (Mimiko never had any parents). Mimiko also chose to be the mother to Panny (Pan-Chan), making the concept of a family very strange... The three adjust to life together during their first night together, while Mimiko writes the first of many letters to her grandma (who she promised to write to every day).

The next day, Mimiko goes to school, reluctantly allowing Panny to tag along (even though she told him to stay home). In a close call, Panny ends up getting all of Mimiko's school (save for Mimiko) chasing after him. The next day, Mimiko gets an unexpected visit from a local policeman, who came to check on her. Expectedly, he freaks out after seeing PapaPanda. He goes to notify the local zoo staff, who invites the zookeeper (who lost PapaPanda and Panny after they broke out of the zoo). The zookeeper demands the safe return of his pandas, so he joins the police and zoo staff in the search.

Meanwhile, Mimiko and her family go out on a walk and, after scaring off some local bullies, they inadvertently lose Panny after he rolls down a hill. Mimiko and PapaPanda go searching for him, eventually gaining help from local police and the zookeeper in the search. They find Panny floating on a piece of wood, heading towards an open floodgate and hurry to save him. The handle, however, has rusted, leaving Panny in a dangerous situation. Mimiko comes very close to falling into dangerous waters after she jumps down to save Panny from death, but PapaPanda saves both of them by closing the floodgate. Mimiko, alongside Panny, PapaPanda, the zookeeper and the local police, cheer their success. PapaPanda, alongside Panny, return to work at the zoo, under the condition that they can leave after the visitors have left to spend time with Mimiko.

Panda Kopanda and the Rainy-Day Circus
The adventures are continued in another short film from the same staff, Panda! Go, Panda!: The Rainy-Day Circus (パンダ・コパンダ 雨降りサーカスの巻). In this episode, Mimiko and the pandas meet a ringmaster and one of his cronies, who were searching for something in their home. Mimiko is overjoyed, thinking that they are burglars, but they are quickly scared off by the family, and run away in fear. The family soon starts dinner, but Panny finds his food has been eaten. In a way similar to the story of Goldilocks, Panny finds what the ringmaster was looking for: a baby tiger named Tiny (Tora-chan).

After getting spooked by Tiny, Panny (along with the entire household) makes friends with the little tiger. The next day, Mimiko goes to ask around town, to see if anyone knows where Tiny is from, only to lose both Panny and Tiny when Tiny goes to see his real mother. Mimiko is invited to the local circus, which is exactly the same one that is owned by the ringmaster that had tried to break in the night before, by a few of her friends. She gladly accepts the offer.

At the circus, Tiny shows Panny his balancing ball act. Panny tries to emulate the act, but ends up getting chased by the local circus performers and the ringmaster. To make matters worse, Panny crashes straight into the tiger cage, where Tiny's unhappy mother waits. Mimiko slips into the circus after someone yells that Panny is in trouble and runs into Tiny's mom. They swap the cubs (respectively, Panny to Mimiko and Tiny to his mother) and become quick friends. The ringmaster gives Mimiko and her family tickets to the show, but on the way home, a nasty storm breaks out. Overnight, it floods most of the land around Mimiko's hometown.

A frantic cry of help from Tiny (in the form of a makeshift bottled message) sends Mimiko and her family in a search for him. They learn from the ringmaster that the train has all the animals, and it's stuck out in the middle of nowhere. Mimiko and her family go to free the animals, which they succeed in doing, but unintentionally cause the train to start (due to the playful antics of Panny and Tiny). The train goes off the rails, and ends up in a collision course with the mayor's house. However, PapaPanda stops the train, and Mimiko and her family become town heroes. The movie concludes with Mimiko and her panda family enjoying a day at the circus and later marching at home in a line while blowing brass horns (PapaPanda plays a tuba, Mimiko plays a french horn and Panny plays a trumpet that was broken earlier and somehow fixed later on).

Production
In 1971, Takahata, Miyazaki and Kotabe left the Toei Animation studio to join their fellow animator and mentor Otsuka at the A Productions studio, in hopes of creating an animated series based on Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking. After extensive pre-production work, the trio travelled to Sweden to seek permission from Lindgren; their request was flatly refused.

Rejected, Takahata and Miyazaki joined Otsuka on the Lupin III Part I TV series as the "A-Pro directors team." After Lupin's cancellation in 1972, the team revisited the Pippi Longstocking project, and reworked many of its ideas and story elements into the theatrical short film, Panda Kopanda. The movie, as well as its followup, Rainy Day Circus, played as the opening short to Toho's Godzilla movies, where it was warmly received by audiences.

Animator Yoshifumi Kondo, who also worked on Lupin the 3rd, served as a key animator on the two panda films, most notably a scene in Rainy Day Circus where Mimi and the pandas ride a bed across a flooded river. Kondo would play a valuable role in many later Takahata and Miyazaki films, including Anne of Green Gables, Grave of the Fireflies, and Whisper of the Heart.

Quotes and influences
The Panda Kopanda films, like all the works of Isao Takahata and Hayao Miyazaki, contain a number of "riffs," or direct shots referenced in other films.

Panda Kopanda:

The pandas of ''Panda! Go, Panda!'' are considered by some to be precursors of the Totoros, sharing many design and animation similarities, especially the Papa Panda character. Mimiko, the little girl, can be seen as a prototype of Totoro's Mei and Satsuki.

Mimiko's red ponytails are directly inspired by Pippi Longstocking. Miyazaki would pay tribute again in his films Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso and Yadosagashi (House Hunting).

Mimiko's handstands are referenced many times in Heidi, Girl of the Alps; 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother; and Future Boy Conan.

Baby Panda's leap onto Papa Panda's chest is directly referenced in My Neighbor Totoro. Papa Panda himself bears a strong resemblance to Totoro.

A shot of a policeman riding his bicycle past a truck is directly referenced in the opening scene of My Neighbor Totoro (Satsuki quips, "I thought it was a policeman").

A shot of Mimiko running around her house is referenced in My Neighbor Totoro as Satsuki and Mei run around their house.

Papa Panda's enormous water splash into the lake is referenced in Lupin III: Castle of Cagliostro.

A pan shot of a crowd at the zoo includes cameos of Lupin and Jigen, as well as members of the production staff. Hayao Miyazaki can be seen in glasses carrying one of his sons on his shoulder.

The final shot of Mimiko and the pandas walking into the sunset references the final shot in The Great Adventure of Horus, Prince of the Sun.

Rainy Day Circus:

Scenes of a flooded town appear again in Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea.

A shot of Baby Panda climbing a roof directly references a shot from Toei's 1969 animated movie, Puss in Boots.

A shot of outstretched hands chasing Baby Panda is referenced in Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind.

Trains continuing to run through flash floods are referenced in Spirited Away.

Home video
In North America, Panda Kopanda was available on DVD, under the title, "Panda! Go Panda!", courtesy of Pioneer Entertainment, later Discotek Media. The latter company released both movies on Blu-ray in 2016 and was re-released in 2022 by its current licensee, GKIDS. In Japan, the movie is available as a standalone DVD and Blu-ray on Studio Ghibli's Ghibli Ga Ippai label, and included in the 2015 Blu-ray box set, The Collected Works of Director Isao Takahata. English subtitles are included in the Japanese releases.

title: Panda! Go, Panda!