The man is passionate about Vietnamese tea culture

/Article & photo: Phuong Vy/

Those who are interested in tea and the art of enjoying tea cannot help but know the stage name Vu Quy Nhan (also known as Mong Dong Vu, a member of the Tay ethnic group in Thai Nguyen) – who has a vast teapot collection. It is famous in Vietnam, with hundreds of antique teapots and unique designs and patterns.

Passionate and deeply knowledgeable about tea culture, he is considered the first person in Vietnam and a Tay ethnic person to research and bring tea culture into festivals diligently.

Relationship from Cheo artist

Born and raised in Lam Vi commune, Dinh Hoa district (Thai Nguyen) – the land of tea, from a young age, Vu Quy Nhan was exposed to tea and used tea as a daily drink. He said heaven and earth had gifted Thai Nguyen a climate and soil suitable for tea plants, leading to famous delicious tea regions such as Trai Cai, La Bang, and Tan Cuong. “I feel fortunate to be born on this land, to live and enjoy delicious teas with unique flavors that only Thai Nguyen tea has,” Mr. Vu Quy Nhan said.

Over a cup of steaming hot tea, he recounted his “journey” of cherishing his passion for tea. In 1968, he joined the army and was a Truong Son transport driver. 1973, he drove an artillery vehicle on the Quang Nam Da Nang battlefield. In 1977, after liberation, he left the army and went to study at the Central Youth Union school. In 1979, he returned to work and became Deputy Secretary of the District Youth Union, then a movement officer at the Dinh Hoa District Cultural Office.

In 1983, he continued to study at Hanoi University of Culture, graduated, and worked at the art department of the provincial theater. After that, he became Head of the Bac Thai Cheo Delegation – Head of the first Cheo Delegation to bring the image of Uncle Ho to the Cheo stage. He has staged many successful Cheo plays, the most famous of which is “Holy Duong Tu Minh”.

Stage name Vu Quy Nhan next to a teapot.

It was this stage achievement that brought him to tea culture. When performing in localities inside and outside the province, he always went to people’s houses to ask about antique teapots and then spent money to buy them. As a “genuine” Tay person, not mixed at all (when he was 15 or 16 years old, he learned to speak Kinh), he followed his “intuition” to go to ethnic minorities in places where Cheo troupes performed to collect information. Search for delicious tea samples from many tea regions.

In 2001, he became the Director of the Thai Nguyen Provincial Cultural Center and had the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of tea. He confided: When he moved back to work in Thai Nguyen, he had to take the troupe everywhere because of the nature of his job as Head of the troupe; he wondered why he didn’t collect tea.

His professional experience also comes from his passion. He went to all the famous delicious tea growing and producing areas such as Tuyen Quang, Lam Dong, Lao Cai, Yen Bai, and Lang Son to learn about. He also felt sad that we wouldn’t find uniqueness if we kept looking for good tea.

He confided from a question from his friends at the Vietnam Tea Association: “Mr. Vu, I went to read the report at the Association of Countries; I said Vietnamese tea is delicious, but they didn’t believe it; they said it depends on taste. Japan also says Japanese tea is delicious, and Korea and China also say their tea is delicious.” From then on, he wondered why he didn’t prove that Vietnam has a tea culture.

Become a tea researcher.

I thought he was a “tea addict,” so he was interested in researching and developing Vietnamese tea culture. But listening to his confession, we learned that he first “tested tea” at the village level: Guoc village – Tan Cuong commune. On the 4th day of Tet in 2004, the Spring Tea Festival of Guoc village was held for the first time with content including a competition to make tea with cast iron pans, Guoc village girls competing to make tea for guests, performing arts, tossing con, poetry vase…

Mr. Vu said: “It was surprising because there were so many tourists. Perhaps it was the first time in our country that Vietnamese tea culture was included in a village festival and became the festival’s soul.” After a year, the second Spring Tea Festival in Guoc village was organized to expand its membership to several hamlets inside and outside Tan Cuong commune, and many more visitors came.

He analyzed that Vietnamese tea culture is still influenced by Chinese and Japanese culture, but how do we find unique features to distinguish that this is Vietnamese and not Chinese?

From the Guoc village festival – Tan Cuong, in 2006, the festival was raised to the commune level with the name “Spring Tan Cuong Tea Festival”. Mr. Vu added: “Xom Guoc is the place where the reputation of Tan Cuong tea and the Thai Nguyen Tea Cultural Festival, Vietnam, were discovered.” He was also invited to be a judge at many tea parties in provinces and cities such as Da Lat (Lam Dong), Ba Ria – Vung Tau (Ba Ria – Vung Tau), Hoi An (Quang Nam), Ha Giang, and Bac Ninh. Giang, Phu Tho, Hanoi,..

He passionately recounted the memory of 2006, when Da Lat, Lam Dong province festival center invited him with a collection of 200 unique teapots to display at the Tea Culture Festival to introduce Vietnamese Tea culture. At the same time, he was the judge of that ceremony for two reasons: the ability to distinguish tea is quite sophisticated, and he has a collection of teapots.

At that time, many people knew him when he was honored as the person who collected the most teapots. With all kinds of teapots, from fairy pots Buddha teapots to the “dragon-glass-qui-phunh” quartet, the “spring – summer – fall – winter” quartet…with all kinds of materials from ceramics, porcelain, Terracotta, silver, copper, gold, jade,… his unique tea set was recorded in the Vietnamese record book years later.

Known to many people, he affirmed: “My collection of antique teapots is ultimately to serve the development of tea culture, not to play with antiques.” He sought the uniqueness of teapot styles. He told me that among all types of ceramics, the kettle shows the most uniqueness: a lid, a kettle body, a handle, a kettle spout, and patterns, while lime vases, water hyacinths, and plates are simple. Simpler.

He announced the teapot collection to confirm that Vietnam has a tea culture. According to him, tea culture has been attached to the Vietnamese people for a long time and has unique features compared to other countries. Vietnamese people have produced many teapots, proving they have a tea culture. Furthermore, tea men – famous people in history such as Nguyen Trai, Cao Ba Quat, Pham Dinh Ho, Nguyen Tuan, Thach Lam… once drank tea.

Ancient tea areas like Suoi Giang have more than 10,000 ancient tea trees. He said if people don’t love it, why do they still let it exist? Then there is the Hoang Lien Son range. So the tea stuff is there, the tea maker is there, the tea is there. He researched, compared, and found the most typical cultural features of Vietnamese tea to honor the tea-drinking culture of Vietnamese people.