In the remote Chinese village called Spring Well Village, an Akha family goes about farming tea. The book is centered on Li-yan who is referred to as Girl by her family. She is smart and her teacher Teacher Zhang asks that she be allowed to continue her education to what we would refer to as middle school in America at the age of twelve. She will continue to farm tea and learn to be a midwife from her A-ma or mother who is known throughout the region for her talents.
She falls in love with San-pa but both of their parents are against the marriage because of the animal each was born under and because of the trouble the two got into as children over a stolen pancake and cause the children to go out of balance with the world meaning that they will need to go through a cleansing ritual. San-pa promises to go to Thailand to earn money enough to marry her and she will take the test to go to university. But things change when Mr. Huang arrives from Hong Kong looking to make Pu'er tea. He is interested in the tea from Third Brother's tea trees that no one has been harvesting from to sell because they were seen as inferior. He also wants wild tea and some special tea trees that he has heard about. Li-yan and her A-ma know he means her tea trees that are thousands of years old. No man is allowed on the land and will die if they do go on it. The place is considered cursed and the tea is considered worthless. Li-yan makes two tea cakes from the tea trees from her grove and sells them to him hoping to have the money for her and San-pa.
Li-yan finds out that she is pregnant which wouldn't be a problem if San-pa were here and could marry her, but he isn't. If she is discovered to be pregnant with a child she would be banished from the village forever. Her A-ma and her hide the pregnancy and when she goes into labor they go to the grove to have the baby. Even though her A-ma isn't supposed to deliver her daughter's baby because it could cause the death of the men in the family she breaks Akha Law. But instead of killing the child like they are supposed to Li-yan walks into the big town and leaves the baby girl outside of the orphanage with a tea cake from her grove strapped to her, once more breaking Akha Law.
When San-pa comes back to ask for her hand they get married and head to the orphanage to collect their daughter but she has already been adopted by an American couple. They leave and go to Thailand. Things don't work out the way she wants them to, but she can't go back to her village so she goes to trade school and gets a job in the city and learns the ways of Pu'er tea.
Her daughter, Haley, grows up wandering about her and what the tea cake means. Her life isn't easy being a child from two worlds and being pushed hard to do so much and succeed. She spends her life searching for the mother who gave her away while Li-yan continues to search for the daughter she lost. This is an amazing book about the strength of women and never giving up. The characters will surprise you as you fall in love with them or want to kill them, as the case may be. I was born in the Southern United States so the only tea that has ever interested me has been sweet iced tea, but this book has gotten me interested in Pu'er tea and exploring it. I highly recommend reading this tremendous book.
Link to Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Tea-Girl-Hummingbird-Lane-Novel-ebook/dp/B01HMXRVL8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522850206&sr=8-1&keywords=the+tea+girl+of+hummingbird+lane
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