Who picks China's tea谁在采中国的茶

Before dawn, on the slope天亮之前，上山

Spring tea is picked to a standard machines cannot meet: one bud and one leaf, pinched off whole. Picking robots remain prototypes that cost more than human labour.春茶的采摘标准是机器达不到的：一芽一叶，完整掐下。采茶机器人仍是样机，成本高于人工。¹² Half a kilogram of finished tea takes about 60,000 buds, and a skilled picker gathers 40,000 to 50,000 in a day, repeating the same motion each time.每0.5公斤干茶约需6万颗芽头，一名熟练女工每天能采4至5万颗，每一颗都是同一个动作。⁵ On the West Lake slopes the day runs to fourteen hours.在西湖茶山，一天要干十四个小时。²

Older women, far from home远离家乡的中老年女性

A Ministry of Agriculture survey counted about 33 million tea pickers in China.农业农村部的一项调查统计，中国约有3300万采茶工。¹ In Zhejiang, under 3 percent of pickers are under 35 and 80 percent come from other provinces; one West Lake cohort averaged 58 years old. In Nanjing the pickers are generally women, average age about 55, the oldest 70.在浙江，采茶工中35岁以下的不足3%，80%来自外省；西湖的一支采茶队平均年龄58岁。南京的采茶工一般都是女性，平均年龄约55岁，最大的70岁。²⁵ Every spring Zhejiang alone draws more than 800,000 seasonal workers, most of them older women from inland provinces such as Anhui, Jiangxi and Henan.仅浙江每年春天就吸引超过80万季节工，其中大多数是来自安徽、江西、河南等内陆省份的中老年女性。³ In 2022 the province needed 1.58 million pickers and was 145,000 short.2022年，全省需要158万采茶工，缺口14.5万。¹²

A month of income, easily lost一个月的收入，说没就没

Most migrant pickers earn 180 to 200 yuan a day, against about 250 for locals working shorter hours, and in a normal year can take home over 5,000 yuan from a season of a little more than 20 days.外来采茶工日薪多在180至200元，本地采茶工工时更短却约250元；正常年份二十多天的采摘季能挣到5000多元。³ Measured by the hour, a twelve-hour day for 150 to 200 yuan is 12.5 to 16.5 yuan an hour, below Anhui's 2024 minimum wage of 18.按小时计算，十二小时挣150至200元，相当于每小时12.5至16.5元，低于安徽2024年18元的最低时薪。⁴ A few days of rain, heat or illness can erase much of it. In the spring of 2025, after a drought and a heat spike cut the harvest short, some pickers went home with about 2,000 yuan, and idle days went unpaid.几天的雨、高温或一场病，就可能让收入大打折扣。2025年春天，干旱和高温缩短了采摘期，一些采茶工只带着约2000元回家，停工的日子没有工钱。³

No contract, no insurance没有合同，没有保险

China's work-injury insurance regulations apply to employing units: companies, institutions and registered businesses with staff. A farming household that hires pickers through a broker is not one, and the Labour Law's own interpretation leaves rural workers outside it.中国的工伤保险条例适用于用人单位：企业、事业单位和有雇工的个体工商户。通过带工人雇用采茶工的农户不在其列，而劳动法的解释本身也把农村劳动者排除在外。¹⁰ A Henan court, deciding the case of a picker of nearly seventy who fell ill in the harvest, put it plainly: hiring by individuals requires no labour contract and no social insurance. She was awarded 6,000 yuan of a 106,000-yuan claim.河南一家法院在审理一位年近七十、采茶期间突发疾病的采茶工的案件时说得很清楚：个人用工不需要签订劳动合同和缴纳社会保险。她主张10.6万元，获赔6000元。⁹ In Xinyang, a 2025 insurance scheme covered about 70,000 pickers, in a city that estimated it needs 1.5 million at peak. In Anji, the county court found that 90 percent of tea labour disputes came from vague terms, including missing insurance.在信阳，2025年的一项保险方案覆盖了约7万名采茶工，而该市估计高峰期需要150万人。在安吉，县法院发现90%的涉茶劳务纠纷源于约定不明，包括保险缺位。⁶⁷⁸ Nationally, 305 million people are insured against work injury out of 725 million employed. Pickers are among the rest.全国7.25亿就业人员中，参加工伤保险的有3.05亿。采茶工在其余的人里。¹¹

What the work does to the body这份劳动留在身体上的痕迹

Pickers in Hangzhou in 2025 reported heatstroke in the team and days frozen in single-digit temperatures, some working past two in the afternoon without eating.2025年杭州的采茶工说，队里有人中过暑，也有人在个位数的气温里冻过，有人忙到下午两点多也没吃饭。¹³ A picker at an Anji garden fell on the slope and broke her leg; her insurer notes that on hillside gardens accidents happen from time to time.安吉一家茶园的采茶工在山坡上摔倒，腿骨粉碎性骨折；保险公司说，山坡茶园意外时有发生。⁸ The national disease control agency names tea pickers as a group at higher risk of a tick-borne fever with no specific treatment; a Zhejiang county study found a 25 percent fatality rate, with a spring peak that overlaps the harvest.国家疾控局把采茶工列为蜱传发热伴血小板减少综合征的高风险人群，这种病没有特效药；浙江一个县的研究发现病死率达25%，春季高峰与采茶季重叠。¹⁴ No published survey of hand, joint or back disease among Chinese tea pickers could be found. The injuries are visible in any garden and absent from the literature.目前找不到任何关于中国采茶工手部、关节或腰背疾病的已发表调查。这些伤痛在任何茶园里都看得见，在文献里却是空白。¹⁵

Where the money goes钱去了哪里

Picking labour is now more than half of the cost of making tea, Anhui growers report, up from 80 to 100 yuan a day a few years earlier to over 200.安徽茶农说，采摘人工已占制茶成本的一半以上，日薪从几年前的80至100元涨到200多元。⁴ Experienced hands raise the share of top-grade leaf, yet the work is paid as casual labour rather than as the skill it is.熟练的手能提高优质茶的比例，但这份工作仍按零工计酬，而不是按它本来的技术含量。²

Making invisible labor visible.让看不见的劳动被看见。

What the work does to the body这份劳动留在身体上的痕迹