The Resurgence of Teahouses in the Reform Era

Abstract

This chapter shows that at the end of the Cultural Revolution they did not suffer total destruction, as had the city’s walls and many popular spaces, as well as forms of folk entertainment. Teahouses were indeed dormant, but not dead; they recovered immediately once conditions were politically favorable, as seen in the renewed popularity of street-corner teahouses and emergence of the high-end tea balconies. Beginning in the late 1970s and early 1980s, teahouses re-emerged on every corner in the city and today thrive as never before.