Leo Kwan: How Tea Has Chosen Me
One project I had in my previous career was to help to popularise the acceptance of coffee in Mainland China: the Coffee Festival for International Coffee Organization (ICO). It had a lot of influence on me in the understanding of the history and trade of beverages. This was a poster from a campaign in the second year of my creative involvement.
Getting serious with tea
Biology was one of my dearest classes in high school, maybe for the aspiration to be involved in Agriculture for improving food production. That was before knowing that the study was not even in the offer in any college in Hong Kong.
I ended up taking Communications Design — the Creative Arts was another area I had been spending most of my spare time in. Tea gained a more important role when long hours in the studio was a daily routine. A big mug with a lid, in the style of the Mainlanders’ standard personal tea ware, was always in my tool stand or on my window sill, though I knew little about quality at that time, and tried everything available in the supermarket and Chinese emporiums.
For a few years after graduation, I travelled to various places in the Mainland, Taiwan and Japan in search of the realities and manifestations of my heritage. Maybe I was trying to find my own direction by seeing what was going on in these places at three different stages of development. Tea, in various forms, qualities and presentations happened to come by.
From necessity to the demand for quality
The four years of teaching afterwards bound me tighter to the drink. Standing to talk in consecutive classes without sound equipment was a lot more demanding than expected, especially when I was trying hard to convey my passion for the visual arts to the kids of a second generation refugee society where the arts were slighted. The pressure was compounded by the duties in a number of government committees and a part-time course in education. Tea was indispensable to sooth both the physical strains and emotional pressure. I was beginning to be very particular about quality.
My relationship with tea, therefore, began not because of the need to sell, but rather the need to consume. That may explain why I intrinsically push for excel in quality — it has been an item of enjoyment since the beginning rather than a commodity.
It was a different way of life dealing with corporations and government bodies as a creative professional. To me, however, the core has always been quality, whether it is of the tea or of the communication; to the clients, on the other hand, there seems to be always private agendas behind each individual, each move. Work was a lot of fun otherwise, and there were often difficult situations to analyse, interesting problems to solve. I kept my consultant business until really had to focus full time in tea. Above: Walkabout during a reception for a Hong Kong government department I had been a consultant for a few years of. Yes, my hair was crew cut back then, and that man on the second right was the now infamous Donald Tsang, Secretary of Finance at that time, and was still well respected by the civil servants.
Tea Chose Me
A subsequent education in the USA and a career in advertising had primed me to look at things from different angles and at the cores of issues. Therefore, before I gave up the suit and my own little yet profitable consultant firm to choose tea as my next trade, there had been some serious analytical work, and intensive study trips to production areas in China.
Tea had chosen me by fate.
While I was still busy serving clients with brand and corporate communication work, ideas for developing my own brand of some sort of commodity had been brewing. One day, when a friend from Taiwan asked me to help his student’s little teashop with ideas for improvement, I was hooked. Three years later, MingCha, the brand that I created from scratch (1), was shown to the world for the first time in Paris at SIAL 2000, and won the recognition as a Product of Trends and Innovation.
My desire to contribute to agriculture ran a big 30-year circle and came back to the produce of tea. I was glad that all my previous experience and learning were also coming together to make this dream work. I had not known at that time, Life had already planned for me a lot more challenges than I knew…
Hi Leo I bought your book ” Not all teas are created equal 14 years ago when we were building the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. (I spent 27 years with Walt Disney Imagineering building Theme Parks around the world and was a big coffee drinker until I read your book) You converted a lot of us from coffee to tea drinkers I loved your and began exploring teas. Continuing my exploration when we built Disneyland Shanghai. Unfortunately I loaned your book to someone years ago and never got it back. I would love to buy another one. What is the best way to get one. Thanks very much Frank
Hello Frank,
You made me feel very happy saying that a lot of you ( and your friends? ) have been converted from coffee to tea because of my book. I hope it is fine tea that will enrich your health and enjoyment of life.
AS for that particular little book, it has been out of print for 11 years now. Over the years I have given away most of the few personal copies I have. There is only one remaining in my personal work drawer now.
Please let me check if I am able to ask for favour from people in my previous company to find if there are any forgotten copies. Send an email copying this text through the contact form so if we have luck, I shall have someone contacting you.
Hi Leo,
I enjoy reading your stories and tea articles very much! Thank you for sharing the story of you and your family. Every piece of your articles about tea and the history of China is very genuine. I love to share your article frequently on my facebook page and company page too! I am a Cantonese Canadian who live in Toronto, Canada. Happy Moon Festival!
Hello Vicky,
Nice to know you. Thank you for sharing my articles. Please do share your comments and any ideas here! We can always improve.
Wishing you success in your business and a happy life in Canada.
I’ve read your inspiring story previously and enjoyed it again tonight. Who knows where the river of life will take us? In 2012, I quit my corporate job to travel for a year. I spent six months in mainland China studying intensive Chinese and travelling throughout the countryside by train, bus, or whatever local transport passed by. In Yunnan, I fell in love with Pu’er tea (and a woman from Guangdong)–my life has never been the same. Cheers.
That is indeed a romantic story about tea! May I ask you to share it by writing for us an article with photos?
I require stories like this in my life to remind me of how well off I have actually been in my life. Mr. Kwan grew up and abode in such hardship, but seemed to have thrived so much in his spirit that he went on to create such a contrasting life for himself. I hope and pray his and his family’s continued success and I am grateful to see this trade of beauty for ashes.
We all have our individual paths in Life. However, it is ever a bright moment when one discovers a torch in another path going in the same direction. It warms the heart and makes the journey a lot more enjoyable.