Multiple Visions of Authenticity: Puer Tea Consumption in Yunnan and Other Places

Puer tea is one of the most prevalent teas in contemporary China. This paper explores how understanding about its authenticity varies between different groups of people, in different places and during different periods. By canvassing ‘multiple’ perspectives, it suggests that these distinct tastes are a result of interactions between different self- presentations, and argues that any one self-presentation is never self-contained, but has involved the borrowed, adapted and re-authenticated elements from the others.