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Weds. MAY 13, 5pm PT
OTHER RIVERS
A CHINESE EDUCATION
by
PETER HESSLER
An intimate and revelatory account of two generations of students in China’s heartland, by an author who has observed the country’s tumultuous changes over the past quarter century
More than two decades after teaching English during the early part of China’s economic boom, an experience chronicled in his book River Town, Peter Hessler returned to Sichuan Province to instruct students from the next generation. At the same time, Hessler and his wife enrolled their twin daughters in a local state-run elementary school, where they were the only Westerners. Over the years, Hessler had kept in close contact with many of the people he had taught in the 1990s. By reconnecting with these individuals—members of China’s “Reform generation,” now in their forties—while teaching current undergrads, Hessler gained a unique perspective on China’s incredible transformation.
In 1996, when Hessler arrived in China, almost all of the people in his classroom were first-generation college students. They typically came from large rural families, and their parents, subsistence farmers, could offer little guidance as their children entered a brand-new world. By 2019, when Hessler arrived at Sichuan University, he found a very different China, as well as a new kind of student—an only child whose schooling was the object of intense focus from a much more ambitious cohort of parents. At Sichuan University, many young people had a sense of irony about the regime but mostly navigated its restrictions with equanimity, embracing the opportunities of China’s rise. But the pressures of extreme competition at scale can be grueling, even for much younger children—including Hessler’s own daughters, who gave him an intimate view into the experience at their local school.
In Peter Hessler’s hands, China’s education system is the perfect vehicle for examining the country’s past, present, and future, and what we can learn from it, for good and ill. At a time when anti-Chinese rhetoric in America has grown blunt and ugly, Other Rivers is a tremendous, essential gift, a work of enormous empathy that rejects cheap stereotypes and shows us China from the inside out and the bottom up. As both a window onto China and a mirror onto America, Other Rivers is a classic from a master of the form.
Peter Hessler is a staff writer at the New Yorker. hhe served as Beijing correspondent from 2000 to 2007, Chengdu correspondent from 2019 to 2021. He is the author of River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, which won the Kiriyama Book Prize; Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present, which was a finalist for the National Book Award; Country Driving: A Chinese Road Trip; and Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West. He won the 2008 National Magazine Award for excellence in reporting, and he was named a MacArthur fellow in 2011.
“Hessler, an American journalist who has lived in China on and off over the last three decades, is a master storyteller. He conveys the humanity and humour of everyday life in China, all the while embedding the stories he tells in the wider social and political ecosystem. The secret of his success is accessible writing informed by extensive experience of living in some of China’s less well-known regions. Hessler has deep sympathy and curiosity about the lives of the people he encounters and his own views lie largely in the background.”
Daniel A. Bell Literary Review
FACILITATOR Joann Pittman is the Vice-President for Partnerships and China Engagement at ChinaSource. Before joining ChinaSource she spent more than 20 years in China as a teacher, student, and intercultural trainer. She has taught courses in Chinese history, culture, and language at the University of Northwestern-St. Paul (MN), Taylor University (IN), and Wheaton College (IL).
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FUTURE BOOK CLUB DISCUSSIONS
TBD
PAST BOOK CLUB SELECTIONS 2025
May 7: At the Edge of Empire: A Family’s Reckoning with China, by Edward Wong
August 6: A Star in the East: The Rise of Christianity in China, by Rodney Stark
November 5: From Banned Book to Best Seller: Bible Mission in Contemporary China, by Cynthia Oh
Come alongside ERRChina/CAC friends and scholars as you engage with works that reflect on past and present Chinese worldviews. You will gain a greater understanding of China and the church, past and present, and its meaning and impact in our current world situation. Together, we’ll make the most of a time of uncertainty, waiting, and strained isolation and spend it in patience, hope, and exploration.
The Feb. 1 meeting on Lian Xi’s BLOOD LETTERS proved a wonderful discussion of Lin Zhao’s complicated life and Christian response to Mao’s China.