Vincent Chen
Position: Founder, Zealong. Field: Horticulture.
Meet Vincent Chen, founder of Zealong, a successful New Zealand company that grows, processes and packages a tea that is unique in New Zealand and worldwide.
Vincent Chen
Vincent’s love of tea, especially oolong tea, is connected with his Taiwanese background.
My big love is now growing tea, and because it’s something I don’t understand, I’m learning from my heart to try to understand it.
Key skills, attitudes and values for innovation
Vincent thinks the following qualities are important for working in innovation:
Passion
Patience
Persistence
Good communication
Confidence.
Encouraging innovation: Vincent Chen
Vincent Chen, founder of Zealong, shares his advice to young people to encourage skills for innovation. He highlights the importance of confidence and learning from others, in particular, the older generation.
Follow-up activities
Vincent compares the learning that can be gained from other people’s experience as opposed to books. Have students consider what kinds of knowledge they might learn from people that they may not glean from reading a book on the same topic and why.
Play the Zealong video story and/or the video clip People, networks and knowledge: Zealong. What difficulties did Vincent and his father face in developing the skills and knowledge they needed? Have students identify the people and places that Vincent and his father approached for help and advice. Discuss what knowledge and skills they may have gained from these people and why they may not have gained the same information from books. Have students consider what challenges the help and advice from key people helped them overcome.
Discuss the likely knowledge and skills Vincent has developed through his experience of producing tea in New Zealand that others may learn from in the future.
Background knowledge and experience
Vincent’s love of tea, especially oolong tea, is connected with his Taiwanese background. In Taiwan, tea is an important part of the culture, and many people aspire to own a tea farm. When Vincent immigrated to New Zealand with his family and recognised that the camellia (a member of the tea plant family) grew well here, it was his cultural heritage and love of tea that inspired him to investigate whether he could cultivate tea in New Zealand.
Drinking tea: an important Taiwanese tradition
Drinking tea is an integral part of Taiwanese culture. At Taiwanese engagement parties, for example, it is traditional for the ‘bride to be’, to serve tea to the mother and father-in-law.
Vincent had no background in horticulture so he had to do a lot of research. He learnt a lot through trial and error and sought help from lots of different people in a range of areas.
Vincent’s passion, patience and persistence were key personal qualities that kept him focused throughout the 13 years it took him to achieve his vision. His confidence to seek advice from others and his willingness to listen and learn from these people were also important factors in his success.
Related content
Find out more about Zealong and their innovative processes in Zealong: a unique New Zealand tea. Discover more about the Science of tea.
In the activiy tea tasting – learn about tea tasting and compare different types of tea by conducting sensory testing.
Useful link
Find out more about the Zealong tea estate on the Zealong website.
This article is based on information current in 2013.
