Monday, March 17, 2008

Oolong wiki

Contributors wanted! Writers, vendors, researchers, tea drinkers with knowledge and the like, please help create a new Wiki page for Oolong! I have very limited time to organize the contents, let alone my writing skill is as good as a 3rd grader. Please contribute if you can.

Check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oolong
It's shameful how crappy this is!!! About 20% of the info is actually useful there. I tried correcting a couple things, and then realize it's a much bigger project than I have time for.

A couple of days ago I was looking for the origin of the term oolong (Fujianese, Taiwaness, or just some random spelling such as Cantonese words were translated phonetically in the US which mandarin speakers have no clue of, not to mention none Chinese speakers). Mandarin spelling is Wu1 Long2. I have used oolong since day one I encounter Taiwanese oolong in the US. Things like this you just get used to it, like orange is orange, you don't give much thought to whether it's a Latin or French word. Now I am curious whether I should continue using oolong or switch to Wu Long.

Tea is derived from Fujianese, Cha is the official pronunciation in Mandarin. However Tea is a widely used term more so than Cha. This creates a dilemma, whether I want to be correct in the Chinese term risking of confusing reader/consumers, or should I just continue using what's more recognizable world wide. KungFu tea or Gong Fu Cha?!

3 comments:

Brandon said...

Please have a look at our humble tea wiki.
It contains a good start on oolong, but it could certainly do with a little help.

http://wikicha.com

Imen said...

Brandon,

wikicha is more sophisticated, however in different format. If the contents can be transfered to wiki, that'd be great.

Daniel said...

gong fu cha all the way!