Searching for a book featuring tea and China
I am looking for a book to feature as part of a tea & literature book club. Ideally it would be set in China and feature tea or Chinese tea culture in some portion. If it was written by a British author that would be a huge bonus. Fiction is my first choice for appeal to a wider audience but a reliable non fiction would be fine. I have looked at For All The Tea In China but it appears to have some portions that are very speculative due to simple lack of available information even though it is billed as a historical narrative.
Anyone have any ideas?
I have no suggestions in fiction that fit your request, but have a possible book in non-fiction: The Ancient Tea Horse Road by Jeff Fuchs.
It chronicles his 5000 kilometer journey along the old trade route for tea from southern China to Tibet, with plenty of interaction with the mountain people he meets and, of course, tea (primarily Pu-Erh).
The hardcover edition is out of print but it is available in Kindle format.
The Tea Road: China and Russia Meet Across the Steppe, by Martha Avery
-chronicles the evolution of trade between China and Russia via the northern tea road.
Chinese Tea: A Cultural History and Guide, by Liu Tong, translated by Yue Liwen
-Found it really informative. It’s short, though.
The True History of Tea, Victor H. Mair
-Covers much more than China, but of the “all-encompassing tea history” books, it definitely covers China better than most.
The Great Tea Venture, by J.M. Scott
-Technically focuses on early British tea ventures, but that involves a large portion of China (obviously). China’s focus is mostly from the early trade attempts by the UK (failed), up to the Opium Wars.
The above are all history-but-storytelling-driven in that they aren’t just dry statements of facts. I liked them.
Also on my pile of unread books:
Chinese Tea Culture, by Wang Ling
-Own it, haven’t read it yet. It’s on my pile.
Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, by Beatrice Hohenegger
-Haven’t read, but I hear good things/was suggested it on teatra.de.
Green Gold: The Political Economy of China’s Post-1949 Tea Industry, by Dan M. Etherington
-Flipped through it, checked it out for the summer, didn’t get to it because I checked out like three other tea books at the time. Bad idea. I’ll read it eventually, but didn’t look story-driven.
I’m making a note of only listing the books that are obtainable. Some of these are out of print but I still see them floating around on amazon some days. But mmmooost don’t come in ebook format, I don’t think.
For fiction “The Good Earth” by Pearl Buck is a classic, I feel like there’s some mention of tea houses in the book, but probably not in the way you’re intending. I honestly haven’t revisited the book since the 7th grade though so this recommendation might be wayyy off track.
I think Liquid Jade would be good for a book club, lots of things to talk about, and it moves along well, it kept me interested.
Thank you so much for these recommendations, and to Nicole for starting the topic! I’ve put library holds on “The Ancient Tea Horse Road” and “The True History of Tea”.
I discovered that my library had Liquid Jade in stock, so I went up and checked it out. I’m only about 20 pages in, but really like it. While purportedly a history, it emphasizes the spiritual aspects of tea (for example, it devotes 3 pages to a famous Chinese poem about the 7 cups of tea, including the entire text in translation). It is written as a series of short topics, almost vignettes, about various aspects of tea, arranged more or less chronologically.
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