The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane - Lisa See

I’ve been a fan of Lisa See’s cultural and historical novels since reading her bestseller Snow Flower and the Secret Fan several years ago. See’s books have good story telling, compelling characters and fascinating depictions of ancient or contemporary China. See’s latest work, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, has all these qualities. The story begins in 1988 with Li-yan, a young woman of the Akha Hill Tribe of China. Her family ekes out an existence growing and processing tea in a remote village. Li-yan has an unhappy love affair that results in the birth of a baby girl. Evading a tribal taboo of the time that forbids the love child to live, Li-yan secretly leaves the baby at an orphanage. The reader then follows the separate life journeys of Li-yan and her daughter. Through education, Li-yan leaves the village and makes a successful life in modern day China as an entrepreneur of the rare, highly prized tea called Pu’er. Her daughter is adopted by an affluent American family who name her Haley and provide a privileged life in Pasadena, California. Li-Yan agonizes over the loss of her child. Haley struggles with feelings of gratitude for her adopted parents and anger at her biological parents for abandoning her. Li-yan and Haley’s search for each other is what makes the novel a page turner. My favorite parts of the novel are when See deftly interweaves Akha traditions into the storyline. My only criticisms of the book are that Li-yan’s journeys to the “outside world” seem a bit far-fetched at times and See’s lengthy descriptions of cultivating Pu’er tea is perhaps more information than the reader needs to know. But if you enjoy well-written cultural and historical novels, I enthusiastically recommend this book and all of See’s works. 

Also, I was very interested to learn the “back story” for this book. On her Web site at LisaSee.com, the author provides wonderful videos about the Akha culture and her own experiences in China researching this book. And I was fascinated by a YouTube talk given by See in which she discusses her in-depth interviews with Chinese women adopted by American parents. Lisa See is passionate about her research into culture and history and that passion is present in all her well-crafted, highly readable novels.