A story about traditions, tea cultivation and the bonds between mothers and daughters by author Lisa See.
The vanishing world of traditional Akha mountain life in a harsh and remote part of southwest China near the border with Burma forms the colourful backdrop for Lisa See's novel. It is hard to imagine that at the end of the last century the inhabitants did not know electricity, cars or telephone. Life on the tea mountains was and is firmly tied to a special kind of tea that almost fell into oblivion in the turbulent years after the rise of Red China. But green gold has received renewed attention in the 21st century, and interest in pchu-er has dramatically changed the lives of everyone who comes into contact with it.
Pchu-er is also the key to the fate of the protagonist Li-jen and her family. The indestructible bond of a mother's love weaves like a red thread throughout the story, in which the completely different worlds of isolated mountains and globalised cities collide.
