Tea and wine exhibition comes to Beijing

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This year marks the 50th anniversary of Sino-French diplomatic relations. As part of celebrations, Tea and Wine: A Shared Passion - an exhibition part of the larger Festival Croisements, the largest French cultural event in the world - began at Beijing's Yishu 8 on Monday.

The event, aimed at discovering the rich essence of these two essential symbols of the art of living and conviviality, invited Ma Weidu, an antique collector and curator from the Guanfu Museum and curator Jean-Paul Desrochest to hold a dialogue on the relationship between tea and wine.

"We want to look at cultural traces to examine the relation between China and France. Since ancient times, tea and wine have been an essential part of the traditional life of both countries. This exhibit will allow us to look at the art of tea and wine from an artistic, heritage-oriented but also contemporary point of view," Jean-Paul Desroches, told the Global Times.

The event takes its theme from a forgotten gem of Chinese thought, the Chajiulun (A Dialogue on Tea and Wine), a 10th-century manuscript debating the relative merits of tea and wine.

A film featuring two experts, French winemaker Jean-Claude Berrouet and tea expert Tseng, reopening the dialogue about tea and wine was also on display.

The exhibition also unveiled a tea and wine maker that symbolizes the union between the two beverages and the interactions between two cultures.

The exhibition is scheduled to end July 16.