by Barbara Dufrene

This year’s big annual Europalia arts festival in Belgium, from September 2009 to February 2010, is focusing on China.

The 48 different exhibitions all over the country invite locals, the many other visiting Europeans and international guests to discover and explore China, from ancient times to present day, through displays of calligraphy, imperial relics, modern art and many other subjects.

The informational epicenter of this celebration is the Europalia tea house in the heart of Brussels. It is situated in the middle of the museum quarter on the Mont des Arts, the arts hill, a stone’s throw from the Royal Palaceand the famous Gothic seat of the city’s Lord Mayor.

For the cultural event the government opened a large art nouveau pavilion to the public and had it turned into a modern artwork by contemporary artist Gu Wenda – born in Shanghai in 1955 – whose Heavenly Lantern project is here materialized for the first time as a landmark decoration. Its red and yellow lanterns, symbols of classic Chinese culture, have remained a feature of everyday, life and they joyfully cover up the large building turning it into a very scenic tea house.

In the spring of 2009, event organizers looked for a tea expert, and they found Alexandra Verhoosel from Lu Lin (“green woods”). She was charged with setting up and then running the tea house for the five and a half months of its existence. She enlisted the help of her son Hans Verhoosel, who holds dual master’s degrees (of science and art), and runs a fine tea and coffee operation in York County, U.K .

Serendipity meets destiny

“Nine years ago,” Verhoosel said, “after my career as a psychiatric nurse and after raising my four children, I was due to take leave from professional life. By then, the four had all finished university and gone to work in foreign countries.” She decided to visit her daughter, who had settled in Shanghai.Too busy with her job, the daughter simply could not chaperon Verhoosel all day, so she started exploring the huge town on her own.

She recalled, “I set up quarters in a tea house as a first step. Trying to talk to other guests and the owners, I discovered a completely new universe, and gradually fell under the spell of China’s ten thousand teas.”

At first Verhoosel simply took fine teas home from every visit to her friends in Belgium to share her delight. After a while, she felt she had done enough favors and decided to stop. Her friends’ unanimous reaction was that she not let go of the network she had created; they convinced her to start a tiny trade structure.

“That required reflection,” Verhoosel said. “But I was greatly tempted whilst wishing to keep the network really small. So I called it Tea and Things and asked my son to join.”

Running his small fine coffee operation in the U.K., Hans Verhoosel the son was prepared to take on fine teas too. Together the mother and son founded Lu Lin, for the direct import of premium Chinese teas. The pair has since enlarged their network. They now have their own trusted agent in Shanghai and travel together with him to their selected tea gardens, all family owned.

“We drive down from Shanghaievery spring for the first picking – that means several thousand miles, all by road – and we then come back another two or three times per year as required,” Alexandra Verhoosel said.

Both mother and son are both passionate about China, Chinese teas and tea culture .They stick to a small selection and plan to go 100-percent certified organic in the near future.

Hans Verhoosel said, “Recently, I was contacted by a team of British cancer researchers, who explore certain preventive effects of green tea. Hopefully my partners will make it possible to link up with Chinese medical research to share all the available data.”

Focusing on the present

For the time being, the Verhoosels are investing all their energy into the Europalia tea house, where the bamboo furniture was designed to their plans and has been shipped from China together with table ware and tea accessories. Running the tea house six days out of seven is a formidable challenge. Most of the staff is Chinese and in addition to the teas, there are about 100 hot meals served every day.

They also organize tea tasting sessions and tea courses, which require reservations, as well as tea art performances twice a week.

The ephemeral nature of the tea house will require all of their time until its closing on the first day of the Year of the Tiger, February 14. But the pressure only seems to bring out the Verhoosels’ kindness and patience. Afterwards, they may need to take a short rest before joining their Chinese suppliers for Qing Ming, the opening of the picking season, scheduled April 5, 2010.

In concluding her reflection on where she is today, Alexandra asked me, “Can you understand now why I talk about serendipity and destiny? As an intensely committed person, I was not really ready to leave the active (career) scene. Coming across such a fascinating opening for new lands, new knowledge, new friends – and still more to come – has fully replenished my energy and inspiration to go on for many more years. How lucky I am indeed!”