愈處邊緣、愈易越界：茉莉花茶的蛻變與創新

The More Peripheral the More Translocal: Metamorphosis and Innovation in Jasmine Tea

在全球化──在地化的意識型態主導下，在地化思維其實不應該被合理化為一種自處之道，因為它常讓人看不到這二元論外的周遭世界，特別是在地所處的他者地方。本文嘗試以宏觀的歷史人類學與微觀的物的社會生命視角，回顧、重訪19 世紀末起在西方核心世界所謂（東方）邊陲地帶的茉莉花茶生產過程。從中發現，在西方紅茶資本生產的衝擊下，源自中國茶農／商的移民能動不只在臺灣醞釀出在地化的包種茶，還外溢至爪哇，形成當今印尼的國民休閒冷飲Teh Botol（Bottle Tea）。甚至，茉莉花茶起源地福州還出現堪為生態倡議典範的文化遺產化生產。在這三地茉莉花茶的三部曲敘事中，一連串的蛻變、創新是二元線性思維外，「跨」視域下的必然結果，由此更令人領略到臺灣被邊緣、再邊緣的時空宿命，與其「愈處邊緣、愈易越界」的逆向創新潛能。

Localized thinking should not be rationalized as a way of self-regulation amid the overwhelming ideology of globalization-localization. This is because this kind of thinking prevents people from attending to anywhere other than the dualist world, especially to the othered places where they are situated. This article adopts a macroscopic historical-anthropological and a microscopic (the social life of things) approach to review and revisit the Orientalist peripheral jasmine tea production histories and sites since the end of 19th century. I found from this study that Chinese tea farmers and traders' migration agencies, challenged from the Western capitalist production of black tea, were not only prompted to develop localized baozhong tea in Taiwan, but also spilled over to Java, leading to the development of the contemporary most popular bottle drink in Indonesia: Teh Botol (Bottle Tea). Even in jasmine tea-rooted Fuzhou, the investigation reveals a culturally heritage-ized production recognizable enough as a paradigm of ecological initiative. Among the narratives from the three production places, a series of metamorphoses and innovations were the inevitable results from a “translocal” viewpoint, literally beyond the dualist linear mindset. And this also shows Taiwan's marginalized and re-marginalized destiny in terms of history and geography, and its potential for reverse innovations along the lines of “the more peripheral, the more translocal”.