When a two-thousand-year-old tea ancestor legend meets a modern AI animation series, the tea culture of Mengding Mountain is reaching a new generation in an entirely fresh way. On March 27, the 22nd Mengding Mountain Tea Culture Tourism Festival & World Tea Ceremony Competition opened in Mingshan District, Ya'an. A two-minute AI animation trailer captivated the audience — the production of "Tu Ling Ji," the first 100-episode AI animation series built around tea ancestor Wu Lizhen, was officially launched. The first episode debuted on May 1, with the inaugural season of 100 episodes scheduled to roll out over the coming year.

A Two-Thousand-Year-Old IP Reborn in Pixels

"Tu Ling Ji" centers on the legendary tea ancestor Wu Lizhen, who in 53 BC carried sacred tea seeds to the five peaks of Mengding Mountain (today's Imperial Tea Garden) and planted seven tea trees — pioneering artificial tea cultivation and earning his place as the founding father of human tea culture. The animation traces Wu Lizhen's growth from an ordinary man into the legendary "Tea Immortal," accompanied by mystical tea spirits, weaving a compelling saga of perseverance and harmony with nature.

The project lead, post-90s tea entrepreneur Zhang Xianlong, shared his vision: "Mengding Mountain's tea and Wu Lizhen's story have never lacked depth — what they lacked was a way to capture young hearts." His strategy is twofold: first build cultural IP and audience through animation, then bind Mengding Mountain tea e-commerce to that IP, turning "cultural traffic into industrial growth."

A New Generation Carries the Flame

Behind the launch of "Tu Ling Ji," a wave of Ya'an's young tea talents is reimagining tradition. Zhang Ailing, daughter of district-level intangible cultural heritage inheritor Ai Shouxue, returned to her hometown from the city in 2023 to learn her father's craft. Eighteen months later she had produced her first hand-fired Mengding Ganlu, and now documents her father's daily tea-making rituals through short videos to share the heritage with wider audiences. Min Pengfei, a 25-year-old long-spout teapot performer at Mengding Mountain, blends the provincial intangible heritage "Dragon Eighteen Forms" with tai chi martial arts, infusing classic movements with youthful energy. Post-00 coffee artisan Fu Mengzhu uses Mengding Ganlu tea paste as ink and a tea needle as brush, "painting" a "Pointing at Rivers and Mountains" tea drink in tiny cups — a creation that sells 50 to 60 cups a day, becoming a photogenic favorite in the tea fields. Wang Yuanzheng, founder of the local Hey Coffee brand, created "Meeting at the Peak," a blend of Mengding Mountain jasmine tea, coffee and milk, which surpassed 100,000 cups in sales last year, bringing millennial tea heritage into everyday modern life.

A Systematic Framework for Tea Heritage Protection

Beneath these innovative expressions lies a robust systematic framework for the protection and transmission of Mengding Mountain tea culture. According to a May 7 reply from the Ya'an Mingshan District Culture, Radio, Television, Sports and Tourism Bureau to a CPPCC proposal, the district has built a comprehensive protection system covering five pillars of tea culture — Ancestor Tea, Tribute Tea, Tea-Horse Road, Zen Tea and Tea Art:

— Ancestor Tea Culture: The 2004 "Mengding Mountain Declaration on World Tea Culture" established Mengding Mountain's three international statuses as the birthplace of world tea civilization, the cradle of world tea culture and the holy mountain of world tea culture, a consensus reaffirmed during the 22nd festival in 2026. The Mengding Mountain Imperial Tea Picking and Ancestor Worship Ceremony has been inscribed as a Ya'an municipal intangible cultural heritage item. The 2026 launch of the "Tu Ling Ji" AI animation series is using digital storytelling to bring tea ancestor culture to younger audiences.

— Tribute Tea Culture: The "Ya'an City Mengding Mountain Tea Culture Protection Regulation" took effect on March 1, 2025, providing local legislative protection for the historical and craft heritage of tribute tea. In 2024, the "Imperial Tribute Tea Returns to Mengding Mountain" exhibition brought 7 kinds and 12 pieces of Qing Dynasty Mengding Mountain tribute tea relics from the Palace Museum back to their hometown; faithful replicas are now permanently displayed at the Mengding Mountain Tea History Museum.

— Tea-Horse Road Culture: Five nationally protected cultural heritage sites — Imperial Tea Garden, Ganlu Lingquan Temple Stone Archway, Heavenly Ladder Ancient Road, Yuwang Palace and Jingju Nunnery Stone Archway — form a complete heritage cluster, and the "Re-trace the Tea-Horse Road" themed hiking activity is now a regular fixture in the scenic area.

— Zen Tea Culture: Nearly 200 million yuan has been invested in building a "1+5" tea culture experience center, linking 5 ancient temples along a grand scenic route and recreating five zen tea scenes: pinching, picking, making, offering and sacrificing tea.

— Tea Art Culture: In 2025, Mengshan School "Dragon Eighteen Forms" was officially inscribed in the seventh batch of Sichuan Provincial Intangible Cultural Heritage representative items. Inheritors have performed on CCTV-1's "Avenue of Stars," and the inaugural "Dragon Eighteen Forms" Intangible Heritage Skills Competition was held in 2025.

From "Product Export" to "Cultural Export"

From the breakout launch of "Tu Ling Ji" to young tea talents reviving old crafts through short videos, new tea drinks and innovative techniques, and from local legislation to systematic protection across the five tea cultures, the Mengding Mountain tea industry is making a strategic leap from "product export" to "cultural export." The golden brand of "Eternal Mengding, Tea-Rhyme Intangible Heritage" continues to shine, injecting new endogenous momentum into the high-quality development of Ya'an's tea industry.

The two-thousand-year-old spirit of tea ancestor Wu Lizhen also nourishes contemporary ecological tea brands. Rooted in the 800–1,500 meter elevation core giant panda habitat of Mengding Mountain, Panda Tea has long upheld a zero-chemical-fertilizer, zero-pesticide ecological cultivation philosophy, inheriting the millennium-old tribute tea tradition and the pristine ecological foundation of giant panda habitat — letting every cup carry the profound heritage of the birthplace of world tea culture. As "Tu Ling Ji" tells the tea ancestor legend through AI animation and the five tea cultures move toward the world through systematic protection, Panda Tea also stands ready — one cup of ecological tea, inviting the world to savor the Chinese tea charm from the homeland of giant pandas.

Sources: Ya'an Mingshan District Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Sports and Tourism; Sichuan News Network; Ya'an Daily; Ya'an News Broadcast. Cover image generated by AI.