Happy Lunar New Year!

& 60 years of Tchai! (12 February 2021)

Best wishes for a prosperous and healthy New Year from all of us at Tchai! We hope you surround yourselves with family and loved ones as you welcome the Year of the Ox!

This year, we combine the Lunar New Year celebrations with another festivity: Tchai embarking on a new decennium, stepping into its 60 year. Hurray!

Besides ringing in the new year, it is Tchai’s jubilee and we’d like to celebrate that throughout the whole year. Usually, Chinese New Year is when we traditionally kick-off our new business year, support a charity*, and the moment when we release our new Tchi visualisation. This Tchi-art is a creative outburst by a new artist, that presents mutual energy, for the coming year.

As it’s our 60th jubilee, a unique and festive year, our Tchi visualisation for 2021 by Sioejeng Tsao, has been created as a special edition. It illustrates the great moments of Tchai that enrich our journey into the future. As well as our energy and the elements that make our organisation unique. The artwork is showing the essence of the Year of the Ox: the need to slow down, take time to think in retrospect in order to further evolve. The Tchi artwork below is embellished with gold, in the spirit of Chinese New Year. But the original is a monochrome work of art, symbolising the years to come; open, promising and ready to be coloured in.

Of course, we have already taken time to contemplate and set focus points that we want to kick-off our fresh decennium with. Next to this year’s special edition of the Tchi-art and the local charity donation, we have also collaborated with artist JA-DE. Together we came up with a small token that symbolises these focus points for the year ahead: sustainability, supporting locals and genuine connections.

For this token JA-DE X Tchai have created a decoration piece that can be used at home. We believe it’s important to put extra care into this place where suddenly we all find ourselves more prominently; our home, a place that gives you balance and grounds you.

We’d love for you to experience the benefits of burning Palo Santo sticks, which release a scent that purifies your surroundings, calms you and helps you to reconnect, to earth and nature. It’s often used on a small tray, so we paired the scented wood with a unique ceramic base, which is glazed with an unusual waste material: shrimp shells!

Shrimp shells are a major waste product in the food industry and plentiful in the Netherlands. The opening of a large peeling centre has only made the waste problem worse. Jade Ruijzenaars explored this issue, and came up with an unconventional processing technique. The result? A use for the shrimp shells in ceramic glazing, and a story for the industry to tell.

How to burn Palo Santo wood sticks:

1-Light a Palo Santo stick with a candle, lighter, or match.
2-Hold the stick downward at a 45-degree angle.
3-Let the stick burn for 30 seconds.
4-Blow out the flame. Place the stick on a heatproof tray, such as the one provided by us, to burn…

*In the spirit of Hong Bao (red envelops, traditionally given during the New Lunar Year), we are supporting the local charity Meedoen in Rotterdam. They are committed to children aged 4 to 18 who, due to their parents’ financial situation became or are at risk of becoming socially isolated. Families with little or no means have trouble offering their children social activities, a situation which is becoming worse due to COVID. Our sustainable vision also includes caring for children and keeping them engaged, because they are the future. That is why we have chosen to participate in this local charity, in Rotterdam