Ji Mengyu sinks into a soft chair and sips her cup of tea. She hears tinkling teaspoons and chatter. She is sitting in a fancy British tearoom. But Ms. Ji isn’t in Great Britain. She’s in Beijing, China.

Have you ever heard the expression, “I wouldn’t trade (fill in the blank) for all the tea in China”? There’s a reason people say that. Tea was invented in China. China also produces more tea than any country in the world. Long ago, people from Europe risked dangerous trips across the sea just to trade for China’s tea. For three centuries, people in Britain relied on China’s dried tea leaves. But now people from China are buying tea from England. What caused the big switch?

Ms. Ji and many others in China have become exposed to a lot of British culture. They watch British shows about characters like Sherlock Holmes. They read classic books by British authors like Jane Austen. They keep track of the British royal family in the news. The new culture interests and excites them. Drinking British tea is just one more way they can take part in it.

As interest grows, British tea salons sprout up in China’s big cities. One English tea company managed 10 teahouses around China five years ago. Now it manages 10 times as many. And people still want more! Before now, people in China experienced more American than British culture. They knew about things like McDonalds and Hollywood. But now they see British lifestyles—tea drinking included—as especially stylish.

Almost one half of the world’s tea comes from China. You would think that Chinese people wouldn’t want more tea shipped in from other nations. But television and the internet make culture spread fast. That’s good news for British tea makers!