February 2016: River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze River (Hessler)

Post date: Feb 14, 2016 7:8:33 PM

A smallish group of long-time book club folks met at Sherrill's on the evening of February 10 to discuss Peter Hessler's account of his Peace Corp stint teaching English in rural China. It was lovely to also welcome long-distance book club member Ginny who makes a point to attend when visiting from England.

The book was recommended by Betsey, and we were all very glad to have read it, as it was both well written and filled with fascinating and thought-provoking stories of China and Hessler's experiences. Betsey particularly admired his physical descriptions--she really felt that she could see the scenes described. We were impressed by his creativity in finding ways to effectively reach his students across the cultural divide, in spite of having to teach from an official textbook.

This book is simply packed with interesting topics, from Peter's experience winning a long distance running race, to the excitement and pomp surrounding the return of Hong Kong to China, to the impending changes looming from the building of the Three Gorges Dam. On that subject Ginny recommended the film Still Life, a 2006 film (DVD available on Netflix) set a little later than Hessler's book in a small town on the Yangtze River which is slowly being destroyed by the building of the dam.

We loved the descriptions of the students' experiences with Shakespeare, and many other stories from his teaching experience. We remarked as well on the lovely scene when he takes his father on a visit the countryside and are so warmly welcomed by the locals.

We mused on the idea of culture shock, and Karen shared her experiences from a small town in Kentucky, which was paired with a sister city in China, and thus regularly hosted Chinese students who were as out of place in rural Kentucky as Peter was in China.

Hessler's notion of his "Chinese self" as distinct from his "normal" self felt familiar to me from my experience as a foreign exchange student. You really are a different person when you are communicating in a different language, especially if you are not fluent in that language.

All felt the book was a great read, and a valuable tool in gaining insight into modern China.