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T
If a Chinese tea Take Cues from A Multicultur-
product doesn’t get al Tea Party
acknowledged by its her career had nothing to do with start-ups
Before Siyi became a TPlays founder,
home market, how can or tea leaves. After graduating from Guang-
dong University of Foreign Studies, she
it convince foreign applied to study business management in
ESADE Business School, Spain, and later
customers? got a degree of marketing in Rotterdam
School of Management, Netherlands. She
embarked on her career journey as a Chi-
nese market promoter for a time-honored
German manufacturer, where her out-
standing performance secured her a con-
tract due to expire in 2052. “The lifelong
contract felt like a life imprisonment to
me.” She recalled with a wry smile.
The German company with an ego of
rigor seemed to draw a finish line for Siyi’s
career journey. But it was not where she
wanted to end. In business schools, she
was fascinated with case studies from
large-scale enterprises and luxury brands.
In her passion for fashion and traditional
culture, a question faded in: as your face
represents your culture, how to use Chi-
nese identity to convince foreigners and
make traditional Chinese culture fashion-
able? The first cultural symbol that came
to her mind was Chinese tea.
In 2014, she started to organize tea
parties as a trial at her place in Mannheim
and called for visitors on the website meet-
up.com. Though she only had two guests at
first, she attracted 286 loyal guests from 20
countries early 2015—after just eight
months. As the organizer, Siyi would bring
back tea from good tea mountains after she
went back to China for business and share
lovely tea stories. In their fourth session,
she handed the microphone to her guests
and encouraged them to share their tea
culture. As Siyi said, “Only a few of our
members were German. Most of them came
from Israel, India, Britain, Canada and Swit-
zerland. We communicated in English.”
When she learnt other forms of tea
drink from these stories, her idea about
Chinese tea was gradually overturned. “The
delicacy and flexibility of tea is still a virgin
land to explore. In the case of Chinese tea,
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it normally appears as pure tea, and only ents, Siyi specially selected middle- and
red tea is known to the world, with the relatively-large-sized tea leaves which
other five types of tea — green tea, white were of high quality and nutrition, suit-
tea, oolong tea, black tea and yellow tea— able for long-time brewing and pressing,
nameless. Besides, there is a large room to and certificated in China. With the select-
blend rich aroma and flavors of different ed tea as base, other premium ingredients
tea. When I found there was a lot to dig out, like mint, rose, rosemary, ginseng and
I started to think about brand building and hawthorn were added to present flavor
systematic operation.” with multiple layers. “We must waste no
effort in quality control. No matter how
From ‘Going Global’ to ‘Going Home’ great the tea leaf is, the quality of blend-
ed products with flowers would be lower
After going back to China, Siyi than pure tea. In this way, it will be sat-
worked on her oversea resources to make isfying only when all the ingredients are
the initial plan for TPlays. Back then, there at their peak quality.”
were only four people in the team, includ- But it didn’t go well. Headquartered
ing herself. As Siyi recalled, the other three in China, though TPlays successfully fin-
were from Brazil, Russia and Austria and ished its incubation in America, it struggled
“couldn’t read even one single Chinese to promote marketing and cooperation with
word.” She believed they “had no strengths KOL due to the large time difference, espe-
in the general Chinese market, not to cially when staff were caught up with
mention joining the fight in white-hot tea product development and package design.
drink market.” Based on the situation, she Siyi took a breath and looked at her original Behind the Scene [1]
made the natural decision of “going global” aspiration. She realized that credibility is
and chose America, German and Brazil as essential to make a Chinese tea brand. “If a At the end of last year, an interna-
tional documentary film team found
their first destinations. Chinese tea product doesn’t get acknowl-
Siyi, hoping to create a video about
Quality is the first priority for Siyi. edged by its home market, how can it how she visited those tea mountains.
When TPlays developed tea products, she convince foreign customers?” In 2019, she “I once spent three years on visiting
looked up tea leaf lists of ECOCERT, co- changed the track for TPlays and recruited tea mountains. As many people think
operated with qualified tea gardens and Chinese staff, marching to the Chinese it is unprofitable, they want to know
how I think about it.” When the
tea factories, and applied for organic market in full swing. She decided to step
documentary film got approval, Siyi
certification from FDA before launching onto the global stage when the brand got led the team to Yunnan and made one
in the market. When it came to ingredi- more reputation and funding. episode in eight days.
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