A Study On The Meaning-making Of "Longjingwencha" In Hangzhou From A Cultural Discourse Perspective

Chinese tea culture,which integrates Confucianism,Taoism and Buddhism,is one of the most representative cultures in traditional Chinese culture and an important part of the dissemination of Chinese culture to the world.Hangzhou has been a famous tea-producing area in China since ancient times.The existence of Longjing tea,which ranks first among the top ten famous teas in China,also builds a solid foundation for tea culture in Hangzhou.To facilitate the visit to Longjing tea culture,“Longjingwencha”(龙井问茶)was set up as one of the New Ten Views of the West Lake(新西湖十景)in 1985.As a tourism destination,the establishment of“Longjingwencha”has attracted more attention to Longjing tea.However,the commercialization of Longjing tea has led to doubts about the“authenticity”of Longjing tea,failing to integrate the cultural connotations with leisure vacation and cultural tourism,and failing to give play to its unique cultural advantages.The cultural dissemination of“Longjingwencha”is facing problems and challenges.This research uses Cultural Discourse Studies as a theoretical framework to interpret the meanings and cultural connotations of“Longjingwencha”through discourse analysis,so as to better disseminate cultural discourse to the world with local characteristics.The study focuses on“Longjing”--“wencha”(问茶,inquire about the tea)--“Longjing tea”,and then analyze“Longjingwencha”from the three levels of cultural connotation,discourse subject,and cultural dissemination,specifically examining its multi-dimensional discourse construction as a tourism destination,as a discursive practice,and as a developmental discourse.The corpus technology and discourse analysis are the research methods of this article.This study collected three types of corpora,including the news corpus,policy text corpus,and tourist comment corpus on“Longjingwencha”.Based on the establishment of the corpus,the study uses Antconc3.5.9 to search the subject terms of the three corpora,in order to classify the utterance meaning of“Longjingwencha”through the analysis of subject terms.The dissertation interprets the discourse construction of“Longjingwencha”from the three aspects of“cultural connotation”,“identity construction”and“development on the place”,in order to answer the research question of“what‘Longjingwencha’is”.First,as a tourism destination,“Longjingwencha”guides people to have a dialogue with history,provides a platform and guarantee for the inheritance of the knowledge of“Chaocha”(炒茶,roasting tea),and also shows the combination of the tourism destination and the connotations of Confucianism,Buddhism and Taoism in traditional Chinese culture.Second,“Longjingwencha”is the presentation of identity construction in the discursive practice of“wencha”.The construction of the identity of“Longjingwencha”involves four discourse subjects,including tea farmer,villager,female tea picker and tourist,and the multi-subject discursive practice enables the discourse subject to prove himself,and the strong emotional attachment prompts the discourse subject to have a sense of belonging to this place,thereby realizing the construction of identity.Third,“Longjingwencha”is the presentation of developmental discourse construction.As a cultural brand,“Longjingwencha”enhances the authenticity and unique value of the Longjing tea brand,promotes Longjing village to gradually develop into a recognized rural leisure space,and also plays an important role in the cultural dissemination and international recognition of Hangzhou.In addition,the cultural dissemination of “Longjingwencha” needs to consider not only the inheritance of traditional culture,but also the recognition of international culture.When spreading to the outside world,it is more necessary to extract justice and macro-humanistic care from the discourse,and share common values in the narrative,so as to develop “Longjingwencha” to the world as an international cultural discourse.In addition,the discourse construction of “Longjingwencha” provides inspirations for the construction of tea culture in Hangzhou and China in the future.