Tea Production, Land Use Politics, and Ethnic Minorities

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Introduction

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1

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   2. Tea Production and Dilemmas on China’s Southwest Frontier

      • Po-Yi Hung

      Pages 3-34

3. Harvesting

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 35-35

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   2. Property: Changes in the Ownership of the Ancient Tea Trees in Mangjing

      • Po-Yi Hung

      Pages 37-70

4. Processing

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 71-71

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   2. Quality: Suzhi and the Tea Entrepreneurs’ New Standards of Production for Ancient Tree Tea in Mangjing

      • Po-Yi Hung

      Pages 73-93

   3. Hierarchy: Tea Production and the Changing Social Order among Bulang Villagers in Mangjing

      • Po-Yi Hung

      Pages 95-113

5. Selling

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 115-115

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   2. Landscape: Restoration of the Missing Ancient Tea Forest in Mangjing

      • Po-Yi Hung

      Pages 117-132

   3. Ritual: The Renovation of Tea Ceremonies and Bulang Villagers’ Rearticulation of a Collective Ethnic Identity

      • Po-Yi Hung

      Pages 133-162

6. Conclusion

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 163-163

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   2. Production of Tea, Reproduction of Dilemma, and Remaking of Place

      • Po-Yi Hung

      Pages 165-177

7. Back Matter

   Pages 179-205

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In this book, Po-Yi Hung uses tea production as a lens to investigate the tension between nature and society under the market economy in frontier China. By focusing on the landscape of the 'ancient tea forest' (guchalin), this book aims to understand the interactions among tea trees, entrepreneurs, the state, and the Bulang, an ethnic minority population. Intensive ethnographic research conducted by the author examines local Bulang villagers' everyday lives as entrepreneurs in the market economy at a time of changing moralities and cultural renovations. The author explores the dilemmas that arise in this unique region between tradition and modernity, territorial margin and connected space, and nature and development.

• Frontier
• Dilemma
• Tea
• Landscape
• Ethnic Minorities
• Yunnan
• China
• economy
• market economy
• politics
• production
• quality
• reproduction
• ritual
• society
• Environmental Geography

“Hung is to be applauded for including 25 photos in the book … . the insights about the villagers’ adoption of discourses of suzhi, their sense of a contradiction between modernity and science, and their relationships with the merchants from outside make this an interesting and valuable book. Beyond the small audience of scholars who work on Yunnan, it will be significant to those who study the interaction between global commodity markets and rural communities in developing countries.” (Joseph Lawson, Mountain Research and Development, Vol. 37 (1), February, 2017)

Po-Yi Hung is Assistant Professor of Geography at National Taiwan University. His research focuses on nature-society relations, food, and agriculture in China, Taiwan, East Asia, and Southeast Asia.

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