The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
By Lisa See
An interesting novel, featuring the Akha hill tribe people of China and the culture of tea.
Lin-yan is an. Akha woman, and we meet her and the culture before the modern world invades her world. Interesting details about their beliefs and traditions. She meets a young man, and as is the tradition, they have "the intercourse" before marriage, as the custom is to sample various options before marriage. Lin-yan gets pregnant, however, her lover has gone to Thailand for work, and thus she gives birth without being married, as her lover doesn't know she is pregnant. As she has no way to bring up a child as a single parent, and no one knows where her lover is, she gives the child up for adoption, but she. never forgets about her baby. Her baby is adopted by an American couple, and faces many issues, growing up in a white family as their only child in America.
Throughout the novel is the story of tea, and it's rise to prominence as not only a revered drink in China, but as a commodity, making and losing fortunes and prices rise and fall.
In the end, mother and daughter are reunited at the family's secret tea grove, high in the hills of the famous tea district of Nannuo. A satisfying ending.
Rating: 4/5
Recommendation: An interesting read, though perhaps just a bit contrived.
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