The Sojourn Tea Shop
By Jia Pingwa
Translated by Nicki Harman and Jun Liu
2020, translated 2022
Sinoist Books
In The Sojourn Tea Shop, Jia Pingwa introduces us to a world of women. There are twelve of them, and they range in age from thirty-something to fifty-something. They are good friends, an alliance of mostly well-to-do businesswomen or financially independent women who shop and dine with one another at high-end enterprises and meet collectively and formally as “The Sisterhood” at the elegant Sojourn Tea Shop, which is owned and managed by the group’s senior, Hai Ruo. The shop occupies a choice bit of property and was purchased at a good price. Hai Ruo, a Buddhist, has cultivated a retail space of spare and open tranquility. At first, the Sisterhood appears as an extraordinary and successful nexus for fellowship and good fortune: their meeting place is adorned with a Buddhist mural of wonders, and visitors invariably point to the flying and blissful apsaras as embodiment of the lovely band of friends. But there is trouble afoot. Police have arrested a party boss with ties to the shop, and though no one has done anything wrong, everyone from the delivery person on up is afraid that the investigation might expand to include them. The ailing mother of one of the members of the sisterhood is in hospital and her status has just changed for the worse. Another member has bankrolled an old friend’s surefire business plan, but the scheme has gone south, and she is now being pressured by moneylenders. Some love affairs are ending while others are advancing in secret, and some members are not as financially stable as they seem. Jia Pingwa inserts three wild cards into the deck. The first is a foreigner, the Russian Eva. Blonde, thirtyish, she met Hai Ruo five years before while at university. She worked under Hai in the hopes of opening her own tea shop back home, a dream that has yet to materialise. Another is the ever-present Yi Guang, an artist and calligrapher of some renown who makes his fortune with his brush. His work sells for top dollar to businessmen and party members. They, in turn, use it to curry favor, demonstrate their influence, and keep the wheels of negotiation well oiled. He visits the shop frequently, relishing his role as cock-of-the-walk, sharing news of deals and rumors from within the party, and enjoying the company of these exceptional women. Jia also introduces elements of the supernatural as well as a living Buddha who has given word that he is on his way to bless The Sojourn Tea Shop and welcome new practitioners into the faith. Each of these characters shine and surprise, revealing aspects of themselves that rival Hai Rua, the serene “five women in one…wife, mother, teashop owner, head of the family, the sisterhood’s big sister.”
“The hospital is a place where people come to die. Their ghosts can be anywhere. One might even appear silently on the stairs. But Lishui is not afraid of ghosts. She is confidently healthy, and especially now she is looking for love, she has a yang aura hovering above her head, and that will keep the ghosts away. She starts to flip through her mobile phone. She has a star signs empathy map on it: twelve human bodies with little hearts on them. Aries, with a heart on the right-hand side of the chest. Taurus, with three hearts in the middle and left of the chest. Gemini, a heart-shaped mouth. Cancer, with a heart on the right chest. Leo with a heart-shaped head. Virgo, with two hearts on the right-hand side of the chest. Libra, four hearts around the head. Scorpio, with a heart in the groin. Sagittarius, with a heart in the middle of the chest. Pisces, hearts all over. Aquarius and Capricorn, no hearts at all.
Suddenly Lishui’s forehead beads with sweat, and she presses Yi Guang’s number again. Yi Guang picks up but he seems to be talking to someone about the mahjong game.
“I’m sorry to bother you again,” Lishui says. “I checked, and Capricorn isn’t interested in romance.”
“Rubbish! Wang Beixing throws himself into everything he does.” “But in my picture, he’s got no heart.”
“What picture are you looking at?”
“A star signs empathy map. I downloaded it from the internet.”
