In the 1940s, there was a well-known tea room on Sun Wenxi Road, that is, the "Wei Ji Tea Room" in Li Dazhong Hall. The tea room was not open for a long time, it was not a traditional old brand, but it caused a sensation at the time, and even 80 years later, it is still popular today.
Li Dazhongtang was originally the mansion of the Qing Dynasty officials and eunuchs (hand-picked jinshi), with an area of more than 5,000 square meters, a single hall is close to 200 square meters, and the Weiji Tea Room was opened in the hall of Li Dazhongtang, founded by Liu Weiying, the granddaughter-in-law of the Li family. It is said that the powder fruit "Jinzha" made by Weiying is particularly delicious, which has won the praise of diners and made Jinzha a famous flavor point in Zhongshan. Because of the good operation, the business of Wei Ji Tea Room was prosperous, so relatives in various rooms followed suit and also opened a tea room in Li Dazhong Hall, which led to the grand situation of "two or three hundred people sitting on the seat" in the hall.
Zhongshan famous snack: pink fruit "Jinzha" (Source: Network)
The tea room in Li Dazhongtang was just a corner of the Zhongshan tea room industry at that time, and the love of Zhongshan people for "sighing tea" and the pursuit of delicious refreshments had the same persistence in different eras.
The collection of the Zhongshan Municipal Archives shows that during the Republic of China period, the "Zhongshan County Restaurant Tea Room Industry Professional Trade Union" was established, and according to the statistics of the trade union membership list, there were 490 registered members at the time, which shows that there were many practitioners in the zhongshan County Restaurant Tea Room at that time. From the roster, the restaurants and tea rooms where these people work include more than 50 such as Yingying, Xiangjiang, Diamond, Top Four, Garden, and Letaotao. This is only concentrated in the shops and practitioners in the urban area, not including the townships, and there are certainly many small-scale family-run tea rooms that are not included, which shows the prosperity of the industry.
List of members of the Zhongshan County Restaurant Tea Room Industry Professional Trade Union during the Republic of China period (partial) (Zhongshan Municipal Archives Collection)
In terms of the scope of the business diet, there is a clear difference between the tea room and the restaurant. In the "Constitution of the Zhongshan County Restaurant Tea Room Professional Trade Union", it is mentioned that the restaurant department is engaged in wine and vegetables, chartered banquets, seafood stir-frying, small stews, Taigao La-flavor restaurants and ancillary foods; the tea room is engaged in tea, flour, porridge, frozen products, ice rooms, cakes and small snacks, crispy food and ancillary foods. However, some restaurants also operate tea room food at the same time, which seems to be not much different from many restaurants and tea houses in Zhongshan today.
Constitution of zhongshan county restaurant tea room industry professional trade union (part) in the Republic of China period (Zhongshan City Archives Collection)
At that time, the refreshments operated by Zhongshan Tea Room were also very local, such as the refreshments sold by Wei Ji Tea Room, such as Jinzha, Jiaozai, Red Date Cake, Leaf Boy, Fried Heap, Fish Skin Horn and Phoenix Ball. Of course, the traditional and common various kinds of buns in The Canton area are also indispensable, such as shredded coconut, lotus paste, bean paste, char siu buns, etc. In order to attract customers, some restaurants also have music, Cantonese opera performances, and even spend a lot of money to hire celebrities to perform, which is also the "sighing tea" feature of the Canton area at that time.
Guangzhou people drinking night tea in Panxi Restaurant in Guangzhou (Zhongshan Municipal Archives Collection)
The collection archives record a case of a tea room fire during the Republic of China period. According to a fire report file of the Zhongshan County Fire Brigade, at 5 a.m. on February 27, 1946, the 35th year of the Republic of China (1946), a fire broke out in the Tianji Tea Room on Sun Wen West Road, and after the joint rescue of the fire brigade and the water-retaining truck people, the fire was extinguished at about 6 o'clock. According to the owner Wen Tian, the fire point is the shell chaff in the kitchen of the store, fortunately found to rescue in time, did not cause a major disaster, but the adjacent shoe store walls and objects are slightly damaged, compensation for losses can be. This is just a small thing, but there are also big things in the tea room stall.
February 27, 1946, 35th Year of the Republic of China (1946), Report of the Zhongshan County Fire Brigade on the Fire Case of Tim Kee Tea Room (Zhongshan Municipal Archives Collection)
In November of the 34th year of the Republic of China (1945), on the anniversary of the birth of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, in order to celebrate, all walks of life in Zhongshan County celebrated the birthday of the Founding Father of the Nation and launched a fundraising activity as a fund for charity activities. One of the donations is to require the tea houses and taverns in Shiqi Town to collect tea money from customers, 2 yuan per customer. At the end of the prescribed fundraising time (from the afternoon market on November 8 to the evening market on the 12th), the personnel of the association went to each tea house to collect funds, but found that the tea price collected by the Ying Ying Tea Room was inconsistent with the actual operation. In order to find out the truth, the association sent a letter to the Zhongshan County Police Department, hoping to help find out whether there was a situation of "short report embezzlement" in the Ying Ying Tea Room.
On December 4, 1945, the 34th year of the Republic of China (1945), a letter from all walks of life in Zhongshan County to the Zhongshan County Police Station to celebrate the birthday of the Founding Father of the Nation (Zhongshan Municipal Archives Collection)
According to the investigation report of the police station, the tea room can not provide a record of the number of tea customers, and only the daily flow book is provided for verification, from which only the daily business amount can be known, and the number of customers cannot be known, so the tea shop is suspected of concealing evidence. Investigators also took a detailed inventory of the number of seats in the lobby, the hall room and the garden room of the tea room, and investigated the tea seats on the 5th and 6th of the same month on the same day: there were 494 tea seats in the three cities at midnight on the 5th, and 476 in the 6th. At that time, the tea room only raised 2974 yuan, according to 5 days, less than 300 per day, it was indeed more different from the actual situation. From this, the police department deduced that the Ying Ying Tea Room did have embezzlement and fundraising. As a result of the final judgment, the Ying Ying Tea Room was fined, and it was paid according to 3 times the original amount of payment, that is, 8922 yuan. The matter was finally over, but from the archives that recorded the incident, it can be seen that the tea room was booming at that time, and some of them already had a certain scale of operation.
December 8, 1945, 34th Year of the Republic of China ,1945, Zhongshan County Police Department Investigation Report on the Embezzlement and Fundraising of Ying Ying Tea Room (Partial) (Zhongshan Municipal Archives Collection)
On January 6, the 35th year of the Republic of China (1946), all walks of life in Zhongshan County celebrated the birthday of the Founding Father of the Nation and received a fine of 8922 yuan from the Ying Ying Tea Room (Zhongshan City Archives Collection)
Nowadays, at the entrance of Sun Wen West Road, you can still see the blue road sign with "Dazhongtang", so that passers-by with hearts can remember the Weiji Tea Room of Li Dazhongtang that had been here 80 years ago, think of the famous "Jinzha" pink fruit of the tea room, and remember that the Zhongshan people at that time loved "sighing tea" as much as they do now.
At the intersection of Sun Wen West Road, there is a blue road sign of "Dazhongtang". Photo taken on June 13, 2001. Filmed by: Li Peiwen. (Zhongshan Municipal Archives Collection)
Wen 丨 Chen Linlin
Editor: Linlin Chen
Review: Wang Jian
Final Judge: Gao Xiaobing
References for this article: "Zhongshan Wenshi" (43rd series) article "Weiji Tea Room in Li Dazhongtang" (author: Fang Binglun)