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Ye Chuan

Series 08 · From the table to the hill

Tea Table

2022–2024 · 6 frames · Chengdu and western Sichuan

Chengdu cannot do without tea. A quiet little series, from a single table in a teahouse to the people bent over the bushes on the hillside.

I don’t know much about tea. I just like watching people make it: the water temperature, the movement of the hands, that short wait.

It was only when I went up to the tea hills that I understood that one small cup on the table was bought, day after day, by many people bending over in the mountains.

On the table

Small white porcelain cups and a teapot laid out on a wooden table
▸ 01A friend’s tea room · April 2023
A hand pouring tea into a small red cup
▸ 02Pouring · April 2023
Hot water streaming from a spout, steam rising
▸ 03Rinsing the cups · April 2023
A clay teapot on a dark tray with a single leaf beside it
▸ 04Rainy day, by the window · December 2022
A teapot on a small stool beside a pale grey wall
▸ 05Old teahouse · December 2022

Tea hills

A tiny figure picking tea in a field of deep green
▸ 06Before the rains · March 2024