Michelle Cheung | Paragon Tea Room—Tea for the open-minded
Michelle Cheung is a prolific young business owner who is making waves in the Vancouver cafe scene. Her current endeavour: Paragon Tea Room, has just celebrated its 2nd anniversary, boasts a modest 4.8 stars on Google, and attracts guests from all over the Greater Vancouver area. Born and raised in Hong Kong, she never planned to have a career in Canada, but now that she’s cultivating a gateway for Vancouver to connect with Eastern tea traditions, she hopes she can make Hong Kong proud someday. Read on to discover her ambitions for Paragon and beyond.
“With perseverance, I am certain that Paragon will achieve the goal of spreading our tea culture to the local coffee-obsessed scene. If Paragon can succeed, then the Hong Kong spirit can too.”
Journalist: Lee An Jing
Editorial: Flore Herbe, Lightning Bug, Pumpkin, Fuigei
Hong Kong Milk Tea
In 1997, when the future of Hong Kong was uncertain, my family moved to Canada like many others. At that time, I was privileged to have the option of following my family; but I had no interest in leaving Hong Kong so I stayed behind.
Hong Kong is a strange place. We have influences from both the East and the West: our food, our lives, and even our language are a result of mixing the two drastically different cultures. We celebrate Lunar New Year shortly after Christmas, one after the other, year after year. Yet, these cultures do not interfere with each other, they simply coexist. We live in this juxtaposition all the time.
Growing up, I was used to seeing western trends getting most of the attention. For example, my peers would prefer having a doughnut with coffee for snack, rather than an egg tart with a Hong Kong Milk Tea. It wasn’t because egg tarts were any less tasty than doughnuts, but rather that doughnuts were not as commonly found in Hong Kong. There is always a perception that things from the West are better or even more superior.
Things move quickly in Hong Kong, there is never time to wait. Once you have an idea, you have to act quickly before someone does it first. Trends come and go. We are always surrounded by such competitive spirit. I was taught to be pragmatic and result-oriented, thinking ten steps ahead at all times.
English Breakfast Tea
Originally I thought I was amongst the creatives in Hong Kong, as I spent a lot of time painting during adolescence. I later learnt that my view had definitely been impacted by the repetitive marketing culture in Hong Kong, constantly bombarded by the enormous amount of commercials appearing on television, at the bus stop, in the MTR (metro); yet they all have very similar styles and methods of expression. In retrospect, many of my paintings had been to copy an existing work or a real-life object as closely as possible; I would often restart paintings I was not happy with. Yes, there are works I am still proud of, but this is not creativity. We lack the western idea of freedom, there is simply no time and space to cultivate creativity in Hong Kong.
That is why I had second thoughts when I started considering my tertiary education. While I believe I could get into The University of Hong Kong if I wanted to, I knew it wasn’t most suitable for me. I wanted to seek a broader perspective. I knew there would be more open doors for me in a place with more freedom, so I made the move to Vancouver in 2007.
After I graduated from the University of British Columbia, I received a full-time offer from my internship at a real-estate company, and the boss treated me well, so I decided to stay in Vancouver for a few years. Shortly after, I started to feel a little bored living here. Climbing the corporate ladder in Vancouver doesn’t seem that challenging or interesting to me, so I started my own business here even though staying has never been my plan.
As someone who grew up in Hong Kong, I truly appreciate all the wonderful and interesting trends from both the East and the West. I think North Americans are missing out on a lot of amazing things that Asian cultures bring. We Asians aren’t helping either — I notice that many Asian cultures are still being kept within the Asian groups, even in a city known for its high Asian population like Vancouver. Many Asians living in western countries never share their passions with the locals, instead, they keep their cultures to themselves. Our ancestors, including the older generations, are inherently more reserved. They rarely speak up about how amazing and diverse Asian traditions really are. Therefore, my first business idea was to sell Hong Kong-style egg waffles, as an attempt to introduce something from my home to Vancouverites.
Yuen Yueng
Two years ago I came across Tea’spresso, a technology developed in Taiwan to imitate the traditional method of brewing tea in a gongfu tea ceremony. I was inspired by how its precise infusion cycle creates a consistently exceptional cup of tea every single time, a great example of how modern day technology complements the heritage of traditional methods.
Experiencing Tea’spresso sparked an idea. There are lots of coffee shops in Vancouver, with a huge variety available in the market; however when it comes to tea, we could only find very few standard westernised teas such as Earl Grey and Green Tea. Paragon Tea Room was born to introduce the culture of tea to a wider audience, and to bring tea to the same level of popularity as coffee. Don’t get me wrong; I never wanted to downplay the complexity and beauty of coffee, after all I have learnt a lot from coffee culture; I simply think coffee and tea culture can come hand-in-hand, like a cup of yuen yeung commonly found in Hong Kong cha chaan tengs.
Tea has such a rich history. Tea connected the countries along the Silk Road in the earliest trade routes. In the beginning, when tea was first brought to a new country, it was considered a luxury good enjoyed only by the royals and the upper class, but it eventually got to the hands of the commoners who began to add in their own cultural twist to tea. The world tea culture would be incomplete without Chinese Gongfu tea, Japanese Matcha, Indian Chai, Thai Iced Tea, Hong Kong Milk tea, to name a few. I see tea as the liquid wisdom that has brought people of different cultures, generations and traditions together, to experience moments of profound connection.
Gongfu tea
That said, when it comes to bringing an Asian trend to North America, it has not been easy. There are so few people here who actually understand Asian culture, so it is difficult to curate an audience to begin with. It may be easy to create hype, but anything that’s hyped up is too often short-lived, like many trends that come and go in Hong Kong. I want to bring over cultural concepts that will last, something that will gain sustainable traction. I believe that tea is the perfect, long-lasting solution, a great medium to introduce Asian culture to the West in their language, while reminding Asians that we should all be proud of our own heritage even if we live in the West.
Like Hongkongers influenced by both eastern and western cultures, like a cup of yuen yeung as a combination of tea and coffee, like Tea’spresso using new technology to enhance old traditions, many examples have reminded us that bringing seemingly contrasting ideas together may bring exceptional results. I will keep trying until I succeed — after all these years of (re)drawing oil paintings, this mantra has time and time again proven useful, and I am certain with perseverance, Paragon will achieve the goal of spreading our tea culture to the local coffee-obsessed scene.
I am proud of my Asian identity. I am proud of my cultural background. I’m ready to prove that if Paragon succeeds, the Hong Kong spirit will too.
“I am Michelle Cheung. I am a HKer.”
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