Interweaven Capitals And Transnational Flow Of Tea

Tea has the profound Chinese culture connotation,and it plays an important role in the process of interaction with the west in modern China just like the opium.In 20 years of reform and opening up tea came again and became an important object of Chinese cultural consumption and symbol exchange,and Pu’er tea is the best among them.The strong influence of Pu’er tea in the early 21st century and surrounding countries which are close to Yunnan producing ecological environment and also are suitable for planting large leaf tea provide another version for Appadurai’s research "life of things" about anthropology.At the end of the 20th century,Yunnan Daye tea is large-scale planted in Phongsali of Laos.These tea plantations have cross-border private capital investment at home,tea horse road and the Chinese network in the middle as a bridge,and international relations and alternative planting for thrust abroad.As neighbor regions,Phongsaly shares similar ecological and historical ties with Yunnan Province.Facilitated by Laos investment policies and based upon the 400-year development of ancient tea trees of Longjing Village,Phongsaly tea base was primarily established in 1999 by Guangxi Pufa tea factory and was incorporated into the National Alternative Planting Plan.In 2005,Malaysian tea factory entered Phongsaly.In 2008,a local Chinese people,Kangpan,accumulated his wealth from Yunnan Pu’er tea market and invested to set up a factory.Afterwards,tea businessmen of Yunnan followed up while local tea businessmen finally found their own place in the market.In this way,Tea base was gradually formed and open to the markets.In this process,actors including Chinese,Chinese Laos and Phounoy people have constructed transnational and trans-ethnic social capitals,and transported Phongsaly tea to Yunnan to obtain high economic value through well-established cultural value of Pu’er tea.Facilitated by the interweaving of multiple forms of capitals,actors including individuals,ethnic groups,state and the government have engaged in the game with their "various capitals" of a certain number and structure.Profits varied due to different operational strategies.It has enriched the social life of tea and has formed the transnational flow of tea.In this paper,"multiple forms of capital" is a continuation of Bourdieu "capital is the accumulation of labor." And forms of Capital,which includes cultural capital,social capital and political capital,are explored as symbol capital.In frontier and heterogeneous social context,multiple forms of capital enable actors to bring added value and then be put into the reproduction of labor.It is the labor which has potential to convert and has converted to obtain economic interests,cultural capacity,social relations,and potential of political power.Following certain working logic,the multiple forms of capital,with the sharing quality of the accumulation of laboring time,have become the basis of their measurement and exchange.Through the case of the transnational flow of Phongsaly tea,we can see that transnational economic activities involve not only a single economic capital,but intertwine with operations of symbolic capitals including political capital,cultural capital and social capital,which is concordant with the "The Belt and Road"policy.Specifically,as the social foundation of "The Belt and Road" policy,"understanding among people" cannot do without the exchange of cultural capital and the combination of social capital.In the past,China’s"going out" policy was limited to the promotion of economic exchange,which has lead to a series of problems closely related to the neglect of cultural capital and social capital.As for the transnational flow of Phongsaly tea,multiple capital forms are intertwined.Reciprocity different parties are able to benefit from cooperation with friendly competition inside.In this way,it thus provides theoretical contribution and practical value to disrupt imbalance and to achieve consensus in the process of "The Belt and Road".