The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane

At the expo, I also met a whole set of people I never expected to see: scientists and doctors. Yunnan is known as a Global Biodiversity Hotspot. The province is said to have “as much flowering plant diversity as the rest of the Northern Hemisphere combined,” which gives it a lushness found nowhere else in the world. The province makes up only 4 percent of China’s landmass, yet it’s home to more than half its mammal and bird species as well as twenty-five of China’s fifty-five ethnic minorities. All this got me thinking about global warming and its effect on the quality and intensity of light, which, in turn, will change the final product—whether wine or tea. Plants with medicinal qualities are coming out of the Amazon rainforest. Couldn’t something come out of the tropical forests of Yunnan? And just as in the Amazon, the tea mountains of Yunnan are being encroached on by development and pollution, particularly air pollution, which I know is of particular interest to you.

Lastly, at the fair I met a man named Sean Wong. I showed him a tea cake that I have. He encouraged me to take it—what he called “an ideal specimen”—to the place of origin, as so many connoisseurs and collectors do. This was not the first time someone has suggested this to me. He said I could travel with him. I’m jumping at the opportunity.

I hope that’s a help,

Haley



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Haley,

I need you to dig deeper and answer my very specific questions. I’m here to challenge you. I hope you understand that. And please don’t take this the wrong way, but I also need to inquire about your relationship with the person who invited you to travel with him. What do you know about him? Is he actually going to help you with your research? What is his motive to take a young woman to such a remote area? I’m sure you understand where I’m going with this, and it makes me very uncomfortable even to bring it up.

You have a promising academic career ahead of you. With that comes great opportunities and responsibilities. I suspect you’ll be offended when you read this, but if I ultimately agree to be your adviser, I have a duty to know you’ll be safe—on behalf of your parents, the university, and my own peace of mind.

Professor Annabeth Ho



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Professor Ho,

To answer your questions:

1. My interest in this subject is very much tied to my upbringing. My father is an arborist. As a child, I rode along as he worked, managing orchards and visiting sick trees. He showed me how to mix compounds to feed or spray them for different needs. He once told me, “You’re learning at my side,” and I was, because I listened to every word he said and I absorbed them into my body like the trees absorbed their medicines and nutrients. Thanks to my father, I’ve had a front-row seat to observe the devastating effects of California’s drought on our trees, which, in their weakened state, have been preyed upon by pests and parasites. Unlike most Stanford students and, indeed, most scientists, I’ve witnessed the suffocating deaths of countless trees brought about by what we can only conclude is global climate change. My mother, Constance Davis, is a biologist. Perhaps you’ve heard of her? I’m a product of both of them, and that’s where my interest in my thesis topic comes from.

2. Yes, I plan to go to Yunnan. I don’t need outside funding. My family will provide it. I’ll take my first trip over spring break, which corresponds to Yunnan’s tea-picking season. I agree that joining another study would be opportune. Tufts Institute of the Environment in cooperation with the Ethnobiology Department of the Chinese Ministry of Education and sponsored by the National Science Foundation is currently doing a multidisciplinary study (the team includes a chemical ecologist, cultural anthropologist, soil and crop scientist, agricultural economist, and others) on the effects of extreme climate events on terrace tea and wild tea crop yields in Yunnan. I’ve been in contact with the study’s leader, Dr. Joan Barry, and she’s agreed to my participation in the project—much of which I can do on my laptop in my dorm room and by analyzing tea samples in the lab here on campus. The current plan is for me to travel in the tea mountains for a week by myself to enlist informants and gather tea samples for my project. Then I’ll join the Tufts team for the second week. Dr. Barry says she looks forward to seeing the results of my research.

3. Yes, I see this as a multiyear study, which I hope to pursue whether I’m accepted into Stanford’s graduate program or I go to one of the East Coast universities already recruiting me. For now, though, I’d like to begin my research in the way I outlined in my earlier e-mail.

4. As for your question about the health benefits of tea, let me just say that there are currently two hundred studies being undertaken around the world addressing this topic. Believe me, I’m going into this with my eyes wide open and with all the skepticism and rigor Western science should bring to the table.

5. Point One: The fact that I asked you to be my adviser has nothing to do with your race. I thought—and continue to believe—that your work on the effects of air particulates on children living in the Yangtze delta was a good match. Point Two: I appreciate your suggestion that I incorporate Chinese poetry and philosophy into my thesis. In fact, I’ve already done a little research and think it might be more inclusive—and provocative—to include some popular American thoughts about tea as well. For example, a recent issue of Bon Appétit devoted space—I believe for the first time—to tea. In it, American culinary pioneer Alice Waters credited Pu’er for helping to lower her cholesterol by 100 points and get her “off coffee.” It’s not poetry, obviously, but if someone like Alice Waters says something like that so publicly, especially if it’s in a food magazine and not a scientific journal, won’t that drive interest in tea in general and Pu’er in particular? And won’t that, in turn, make the issue of the effects of climate change on tea trees even more pressing?

In closing, I need to address your concerns about my traveling companion. While no one can fully understand another person’s motives, I doubt he has any romantic interest in me. (I assume that’s what you were suggesting. If not, I’m hugely embarrassed.) He’s a tea nerd. I hadn’t known such a thing existed, but it does. I feel lucky to have connected with an expert in the field who can address so many of your logistical concerns.

I hope you will still consider being my adviser.

Sincerely,

Haley Davis



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Dear Haley,

Of course, I know your mother. Everyone in our field knows your mother for the quality and importance of her work. We’ve been attempting to recruit her for our Biology Department for years. She’s always said she didn’t want to uproot her family. I should have put two and two together. It’s my own ignorance that didn’t allow me to match your name and your talents to her face. I apologize.

I apologize as well for my part in the other misunderstanding. I will gladly be your adviser. Come to my office hours next Tuesday for further discussion. Among other things, I’d like to know, given your last e-mail, if you’ll be looking at tea in general or just this Pu’er that you mentioned. I see some real benefits in narrowing from a panoramic and encyclopedic view to going in depth on one varietal.

Until Tuesday,

Professor Annabeth Ho



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Dear Professor Ho,

Yay! My mother will be so excited when I tell her. I am very much looking forward to working with you.

Haley





AS UNCONTROLLABLE AS THE WIND


“Are you stalking me?” I ask. “No matter where I go, there you are.”

“Ah, Tina.” Mr. Huang gives me an ingratiating smile. “Maybe we’re meant to know each other. Have you ever thought about that?”

No.

“I call you by your American name,” he says. “When will you start calling me by mine? John.”