Tea Production, Land Use Politics, and Ethnic Minorities

Book excerpt: 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.