The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

I drink tea, cold in the summer and hot in the winter, but I never gave much thought to where it comes from other than whether it's a flavor I like. I have little to no idea about the lives of the people who grow, harvest, or sell the tea. Lisa See's most recent novel not only introduces one group of these people, the Akha minority in China, to readers, but also examines the ways in which their culture and their relationships are changing as the tea trade itself is changing.

Li-yan is a young Akha woman growing up in a remote mountain village in the Yunnan Province, bound by the long held beliefs and customs of her people. Li-yan's family has harvested Pu'er tea for generations, the women of the family carefully guarding the location of show more their prized "mother" tree from the men and all outsiders. Li-yan is caught straddling the past and the changing future where things like banishing those who bear twins will no longer hold sway over her culture. Falling in love, she commits the terrible sin of having a child out of wedlock, a sin punished by the death of the baby. Having no other choice, she gives her tiny daughter up for adoption even as she has almost immediate second thoughts. Her journey through life is not an easy one and the shadow of her missing daughter follows her always. An ocean away in America, Haley is the much loved, adopted Chinese daughter of an educated, white couple. She has forever wondered about her birth mother and why she was given up for adoption. Part of her identity is completely unknown, unknown except for the unusual pressed tea cake tucked into her baby blanket. It is her search for answers about her origins and about this tea that sets her on her own journey back to China.

This is a dual narrative weaving Li-yan and Haley's stories. Li-yan's tale takes up the bulk of the beginning (and in truth the whole novel) and is told in the first person while Haley's tale is told through the many documents others write about her during her childhood, doctor's notes, her mother's letters to family, Haley's own school work. Haley's story only becomes a traditional narrative at the end of the novel. Although Haley's search for self and the identity politics involved are important, Li-yan's life and the trials she overcomes are far more interesting to the reader, offering a history of minorities in China, a glimpse at an evolving minority culture, insight into all the levels of the tea industry, and the treatment and ultimate power of women. No reader will doubt where the novel is headed but the coincidences required to reach that point can be a little unbelievable. See does an amazing job with the culture of the Akha and with the quiet power and will of the women in this story. Haley's desire to know her own past is well done and believable and it's lovely to see her parents' support for her need for information. Those who like a goodly dose of history and anthropology with their fiction will definitely enjoy this story of mothers and daughters, identity, what is gained and what is lost through globalization, and the changing landscape of the tea world, culturally, economically, and ecologically.

A 2017 National Reading Group Month Great Group Read show less

I can always rely on author Lisa See to provide an interesting and engaging read and while The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane had a few flaws, it was a book that totally engrossed me. Although a little overly sentimental and relying on a huge coincidence to make her plot work, this story about a woman from the Akha tribe of China’s Yunnan province who becomes a tea entrepreneur while searching for the daughter that she had to give up for adoption was both a remarkable and immersive reading experience.

Lisa See is well known for how she explores various aspects of Chinese culture and traditions. Her research is extensive and her story telling is vivid. In this book she introduces us to an ethnic minority group in China who are governed show more by their beliefs in spirits, cleansing rituals, taboos and the dictates of village shamans. When Li-Yan discovers she is pregnant by her absent fiance, she has no choice but to hide the pregnancy, give birth in secret and with her mother’s help, place the child in an adoption centre. The child is adopted by an American couple and grows up in California as Haley. Li-Yan goes on to educate herself and, as her people are tea growers, she becomes a tea expert and eventually marries a wealthy Chinese businessman. But even with money and position behind her, finding her daughter is an impossible task. At the same time, Haley, now a grown young woman herself is also trying to find her birth mother with little success.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane celebrates the bonds of family, heritage and culture. I felt the plot suffered somewhat from the author’s extensive information on tea growing and producing as well as her research about the Akha people, but this was still a very satisfying read. show less

This historical fiction novel, that crosses from China to America exploring the tea industry and cross-cultural adoption, was engaging and interesting to read. Lisa See writes very smoothly. She incorporates many cultural and historical details from China that seem well researched, and she doesn't shy away from difficult topics.

This novel focuses on the Akha people, a small isolated group that lives in the mountains harvesting tea, living simply, and ensconced in their traditions and customs that seem unusual to modern Americans (and Chinese!). Li-Yan, a young woman in the village, is different. She is singled out for her intelligence by a teacher who was sent to their village during the Cultural Revolution. But her life takes a turn show more when she falls in love and has a baby out of wedlock. She gives up this daughter anonymously to an orphanage, later finding out her daughter was sold to an American couple in adoption.

Li-Yan's life ends up taking a fairy tale turn as she learns the tea trade and finds true love, but even with her resources it's unlikely that she'll ever be reunited with her daughter. The daughter's life story and experience is being simultaneously explored in America.

All historical fiction needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Lisa See manages to make me feel like she understands this. She writes with confidence, but at the same time I feel like she leaves a lot of room for a reader to know that she's not trying to be an ultimate authority on any of this. Her books are a great window into different cultures and experience that hopefully lead to further curiosity and contribute to an overall understanding of a different way of life. show less

"As A-ma said, every story, every dream, every waking minute of our lives is filled with one fateful coincidence after another. People and animals and leaves and fire and rain – we whirl around each other like handfuls of dried rice kernels being tossed into the sky. A single kernel cannot change its direction. It cannot choose to fly to the right or to the left nor can it choose where it lands – balanced on a rock, and therefore salvageable, or bouncing off that same rock into the mud, becoming instantly useless and valueless. Where they alight is fate, and nothing – no thing anyway – can change their destinies."

I picked this book up because I really enjoyed Lisa See’s Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (review), though I show more haven’t read anything else of hers. I was looking for a similarly engrossing read, and I was not disappointed.

Lisa See’s latest novel, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane , tells the story of Li-yan and her life as a tea farming Akha in a remote hill tribe village in Yunnan. When she has a baby out of wedlock, she abandons her in an orphanage in the closest town both as defiance of traditional Akha practices as well as in hopes of a better life for her daughter.

The heart of this book is about tea as well as mother-daughter relationships, not only between Li-yan and her lost daughter Hayley, but also between Li-yan and her own A-ma, the village midwife. It is clearly apparent that the author did extensive research, and I learned so much about tea (such as the history of pu’er) and the culture of the Akha people (a Chinese ethnic minority group).

“Rice is to nourish,” A-ma says. “Tea is to heal. Always remember that food is medicine, and medicine is food. If you take care of the trees, the trees will take care of you.”

Even though Li-yan made mistakes, she learned from them and grow as a person. Her strength and perseverance were admirable, and even though having her daughter affected the course of her life, she eventually pulled herself up and make her own path. We are also given snippets from Hayley’s life – emails between her adoptive mother and grandmother, transcripts from doctors and therapy sessions, papers she wrote during school – that provided just enough to glean a picture of Hayley: a strong, driven, and intelligent young woman. Hayley’s story felt like flipping through a scrapbook, and I thought it was a clever way to tell her story.

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane was well-paced for the most part, although the story slowed down slightly about two-thirds of the way through; however, it all came together for a highly satisfying ending that left me wanting to know more about these characters’ lives.

Thank you to NetGalley, Edelweiss, and Scribner for an advanced copy of this eBook in exchange for an honest review! show less

Li-yan and Haley live very different lives. Although both are of the Akha people, they are a generation apart: Li-yan is Haley’s mother, although they have been separated since Haley was a few days old. Haley grows up in the Los Angeles area in an upper middle class home; Li-yan grew up without plumbing or electricity. All that connects them is a cake of pu-erh tea that Li-yan left with Haley at the orphanage, and has, miraculously, stayed with her.

Li-yan starts her life in the Akha people, a small group living in the mountains between Thailand and Laos and the Yunnan district of China. Even in 1995 their lives are almost Stone Age; they have no modern conveniences, still wear traditional dress, have their medical problems dealt with show more by a wise woman, and abide by traditional Akha laws and superstitions. Pretty much their only contact with the 20th century is when they sell the tea that they pick from their small allotments. Li-yan’s life seems to be set: as the daughter of the wise woman/midwife, she will step up to that job when her time comes.

Three things change Li-yan’s life forever. She is very good with languages and is sent on to college, where she first encounters a flush toilet. She has the misfortune of falling in love with the wrong man; she was born on a Pig Day, while San-pa is born on a Tiger Day. They are mismatched and cannot wed- but they secretly have a child together. And one day a jeep comes rattling into the village bearing a man who wants to buy their tea directly rather than going through the middleman. He knows they have special teas, from special, old trees, that will be worth a fortune on the open market. All these things combine to end up making Li-yan a woman of both China and America.

Lisa See has dealt with Chinese women coming to terms with being in America in ‘China Dolls’; in that book, it was WW 2. ‘Tea Girl’ deals with it in 1995 to the present day. The children adopted by white Americans (almost always girls) face different challenges growing up than the Chinese who arrived as adults in earlier years- easier in a lot of ways, but not knowing why they were given up and what kind of linage they might have.

The plotting is so complex in this book it can be hard to keep track of, but it all comes together in the end perfectly. The descriptions of life in the forest village bring the place to life. Li-yan is a very complex character and the others are pretty vivid, too, especially Li-yan’s mother. Five stars out of five- not surprising for a book by Lisa See! show less

I love Lisa See's multi-generational Chinese sagas - well-researched, generally historically accurate, and she paints beautiful, intimate pictures of lives, never shying away from the more painful aspects of things like foot binding or infanticide.

Yes, infanticide. The start of this book had me in my car (where most of my audiobook-listening gets done) with my hand over my mouth in agony. Even so, I was wrapped up in the saga from then on out, loving the exploration of an area I will likely never have the opportunity to visit. I went on more than one rabbit hole looking at traditional Akha clothing and headdresses online and learning more about pu ehr tea.

With a start like that, I definitely needed a happy ending though, and I'm glad show more it was delivered in a way that wasn't completely over-the-top cheesy, even with a scenario that would likely never happen in real life.

Only one thing annoyed me, and it was just a personal thing that not everyone will see the same way, I realize: the casual and supportive mentions of Chinese real estate investments in North America rubbed me all the wrong ways. This is a major issue in many cities (take a look at Vancouver, B.C.) as it drives up real estate and rental costs, and these properties often sit vacant. In the years since this book was written, however, that has slowed quite a bit, but still... show less

I am so glad I had taken an introduction to tea class at a local tea shop before reading this book. In particular, knowing about Pu’erh tea which is featured in this book was helpful. I would have enjoyed the book without the class, but being able to visualize how the tea was picked and processed as I read was very helpful. Another aspect I enjoyed was featuring a minority group. I’ve taken numerous college classes on China, and was pleased to be reading about a group other than the Hans. Watching a young girl fight the sexist world view of her community, watching her find her voice and become successful was a vital part of the story. Adding the personal story of her daughter given up for adoption and the open ending of the two show more meeting by chance created a very pleasing book to read in my otherwise dreary rainy winter. show less