Making tea, making ethnic minority women: Women’s labor, ethnicized femininity, and the Pu’er tea business in contemporary China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Women have long shaped China’s tea trade while being, in turn, shaped by it. This can be seen especially clearly in Pu’er tea businesses in Southwest China. Cultivated by the Hani (Akha), Bulang, Lahu, Dai and many other ethnic groups, the marketing of Pu’er tea as an exotic and ethicized product has been inevitably entangled with the transformations of social practices amongst these ethnic groups. Women of these tea making ethnic groups do essential work at every step on the journey of the tea from field to cup. Simultaneously, they have been objectified and constructed as a cultural symbol of the tea in marketing and consumption practices around it. This article delves into the question of how ethnic minority women and the Pu’er tea business shape each other in contemporary Chinese society. By examining their contribution to the production of the tea and make opportunities for themselves in the tea business, this article shows that although ethnic minority women’s participation in this tea market doesn’t always lead to more equal gender relations, it empowers them to gain commercial success and respect. This process of empowerment, however, is rooted in the ethnic women’s awareness of performing femininity.