My gaiwan set finally arrived, so this morning I decided to do a trial run of gongfu-style brewing with some lapsang souchong. The basic idea is to do multiple short infusions with a high tea/water ratio, as opposed to one long infusion with a low tea/water ratio (western-style brewing.) The gaiwan itself is just a cup with a lid, you let the leaves steep for a couple seconds with the lid on and then pour out the tea into a pitcher while holding the lid slightly open to act as a strainer. It took me a couple tries before I could get the motion right.
The experiment was a partial success. My first infusion was way too long (20 rather than 10 seconds, you have to move quick) and tasted terrible. The next couple infusions were much better, and I managed to do about five before the leaves started to lose their flavor. The tea didn't taste all that different from what I was used to making in my teapot. I think that the real difference between gongfu and western-style brewing is the amount of control you have over how long the leaves steep. It probably works really well with more delicate oolong or green teas. Pu-erh is also popular with gaiwan fans, but I don't know much about it.
I would recommend anyone interested in trying this out to get a gaiwan by itself instead of a set, and to buy from a physical store if possible. The lid on mine doesn't fit perfectly, and while the pitcher is handy, the cups are way too small. Drinking tea out of a shot glass might be a real aesthetic experience if you're an enlightened 君子, but being a pleb I prefer a regular-sized teacup. Having a saucer, tea tray, and scale to weigh out the leaves beforehand (you're supposed to go by weight, not by teaspoon) would have also helped a lot.
I'm looking forward to trying this again, but for the time being I think I'm going to stick with western-style brewing. I bought some "blue elephant" тот самый (any Russian agorites know the story behind that name?) recently based on this thread and am curious to see what it's like.