O-lan and the Tea Leaves

• Poverty and Resource Scarcity: Heating water for tea is depicted as an activity that consumes resources, and characters like Wang Lung's father are at times portrayed as reluctant to use tea leaves or excessive amounts of water due to their poverty. This underscores the scarcity of resources and the importance of frugality in their lives.

I had a housemate in the 80s who lived a very frugal life. He carried his own tea bags. When at dinner in a restaurant, he would ask for a pot of boiled water. He would always check to verify whether the establishment had charged him for the boiled water. After all, if they can serve iced water for free, shouldn't boiled water be the same price?
...
This brings up a flood of memories. It was a simple scene from a book we had read in 7th grade. In case the names of the characters are unfamiliar, they are two of the main ones in The Good Earth written by Pearl S. Buck. Wang Lung was a poor farmer, and O-lan was a wife provided him during an arranged marriage. The wife was dutiful, but at the onset of the marriage, he did wonder if his new wife loved him.

Love is often measured with different metrics. Food and money are two popular ones we are oh so familiar with. But what happens if food is meagre because money is scarce? My grandmother re-used tea leaves. Back in the day her tea of choice orange pekoe black from the Consolidated Tea Company. Connoisseurs of tea often described the leaves used by this brand as the swept-up by-product of leaves that fell on the during the thrashing process.

Tea back then was served in PYREX glasses, and it would be brewed for short periods of time. The readiness was based on the color produced in the glass. Sometimes the steeping wouldn't even be a minute long. The leaves were often reused.

I had only met one person in my life who drank unsweetened, boiled water. It was unimaginable. Yes, that does sound strange considering how Americans can gulp down iced water at restaurant tables with no end in sight. <SHRUG>

In the story line I mention, Wang Lung tells his new wife that she must prepare breakfast. For his father, she is only to give the old man hot water for his chronic cough. When she prepares breakfast, she gives her father-in-law hot water, but when she serves her husband, he sees tea leaves floating in the cup. He is about to strike, her but asks why she had done this. She said that she did as she was told. Her old father-in-law received the hot water. But for the man she loved, she gave tea leaves.

On the morning after their wedding night, Wang Lung feels a sense of newfound luxury. He knows his days of preparing the fire and hot water are over because his wife is now there to do the work.

• A sign of kindness: Wang Lung is delighted when O-lan adds precious tea leaves to the hot water she brings him. This was a rare and expensive treat for them. He perceives it as a clear sign of her kindness and good nature, and a sign that she likes him.
• A special luxury: This simple breakfast becomes a special moment for Wang Lung. It represents his transition from a single, struggling man to a married man with a partner to help him run his household.

My grandmother shared fruit; a macintosh apple or a juice-producing orange. She would cut it into portions and remove the skin. She generally would tell stories during the process.

I actually recall acts of kindness with food more vividly than I do those that involved money.