The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

Although the Akha people are travelers, it has gotten harder to find new land where they can settle. As a result, they must stay in one place and build only short-term homes. Li-yan’s family house comprises of the main residence and three huts for newlyweds—her three older brothers and their wives.

As the women and girls of the household do needlework around the fire pit, Deh-ja and her mother-in-law interrupt with gifts for A-ma. A-ma is the village’s midwife and will soon deliver Deh-ja’s baby. Li-yan notes that although Deh-ja is wearing loose clothing, her stomach looks much larger than usual during pregnancy: “[S]he looks like a melon left too long on the vine, ready to burst” (20). Deh-ja expresses her hopes that it will be a boy and promises to follow the Akha traditions when her baby is born.

In the meantime, Third Sister-in-law inspects Li-yan’s needlework and then tells her to do it all over again, adding that no man will ever propose to her because her needlework is so poor. A-ma interferes and assures everyone that Li-yan “will go to her marriage with a precious dowry,” by which she means “a remote tea grove high, high, high on the mountain and handed down by the women in her family” (22).