The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
China

The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

by Lisa See

Family & Heritage Historical Fiction Fiction 2017

Summary

Set in the mountains of Yunnan, China, The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane follows Li-yan, a young woman from the Akha ethnic community whose life is shaped by centuries-old traditions surrounding tea cultivation, marriage, and family. When Li-yan gives birth to a daughter outside marriage, she makes the painful decision to leave her baby near an orphanage rather than follow a tradition that threatens the child’s life. The girl, Haley, is adopted by an American family and grows up far from her biological roots. As the years pass, both mother and daughter struggle with questions about their identities and origins. Connected by their shared heritage and the ancient tea trade, their stories explore motherhood, cultural change, adoption, and the enduring bonds between generations.

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Country
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Asia
About the author
Lisa See
Lisa See

Lisa See is an American novelist of Chinese American heritage, born in Paris in 1955 and raised in Los Angeles, California. Her family history and connections to Los Angeles’s Chinatown have strongly influenced her writing, which often explores Chinese culture, women’s experiences, family relationships, and the tensions between tradition and modernity. Before becoming a novelist, See worked as a journalist and columnist, developing an interest in Chinese American history and cultural identity. Her best-known works include Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (2005), which explores female friendship and the secret women’s language of nineteenth-century China, and Peony in Love (2007), a historical novel about love, opera, and women’s lives in Qing dynasty China. Her novel The Island of Sea Women (2019) follows two women divers on the Korean island of Jeju across decades of political upheaval and personal tragedy. Through richly researched historical fiction, See brings overlooked women’s stories to life while examining loyalty, resilience, cultural memory, and the enduring bonds between generations.

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Details
Published
2017
Author
Lisa See