While researchers have written about the role of teahouses, for example, during the Republican period (1911--1949) in mainland China (Shao 1998), and in Ming (1368--1644) and Qing Dynasty (1644--1911) cities (Wang 2000), no academic research has been identified that analyzes teahouse culture in Taiwan. This study is an attempt to fill that gap by examining the role of tea-art teahouses in Taipei, Taiwan's largest city. Exploratory in nature, the study reflects an ethnographic approach, which consisted of 105 structured participant observations in seventeen teahouses over a seven-month period in 2002.;Tea-art teahouses in Taiwan have functioned to elevate tea to an art form; but at the same time, they have divorced tea from its more traditional social functions. Today, tea-art teahouses are declining in numbers; traditional teahouses have also been on the decline for years. The research reported here suggests that the overall decline is symptomatic of a larger societal change linked to modernity and Westernization---a lifestyle that emphasizes frugality in the use of time and a concomitant loss of personal connection to others in daily life and in the scope of human relationships. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).
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