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River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (平装)
by Peter Hessler
| Category:
Memoir, Chinese Culture |
| Market price: ¥ 168.00
MSL price:
¥ 138.00
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| Stock:
In Stock |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
An unforgettable portrait of a city that is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be. |
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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Elisabeth W (MSL quote), Shanghai China
<2007-05-11 00:00>
Modern China is a place ripe with ironies, and among the greatest of them is them is that the Chinese have no sense of irony. It takes an understanding outsider to appreciate these ironic idiosyncracies that Chinese themselves are so oblivious to, and a gifted and sensative writer to portray them without resorting to caricature or mockery.
River Town is the most honest and insightful portrayal I have read of China in the late 1990s. Although it takes a small town in Sichuan as its focus, most of Hessler's astute observations are applicable to the rest the country, from metropolis to village. The book is not so much a travelogue as a 'socialogue'.
Personally, having lived elsewhere in China during the same periods that the book describes in Fuling, I found myself nodding in agreement throughout the book, and laughing aloud in many a section. Hessler's characterizations, both of China and of how a Westerner changes after a few years in China, are dead on.
River Town is the best book available for getting a sense of what China is like, on the most basic level, and explains why we who live here simultaneously love and despise the place. If you are an old China Hand, you will love this book. If you are a total novice to the subject, you couldn't find a more accurate and enjoyable introduction. |
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M. Scott Murphy (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-11 00:00>
This book was an incredible eye-opener about Chinese culture. A sprinkling of wit binds together a string of vignettes which lay bare the society of this remote, interior, Chinese city. Hessler's personality rings through the pages as he draws you into his world and his experiences.This is a must read for anyone who wants to travel in Asia or who wishes to understand the role that China will have in the coming century.
Simply a fabulous book.
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Boris Bangemann (MSL quote), Singapore
<2007-05-11 00:00>
Peter Hessler's River Town ranks among my favorite three books about China, the other two being Mark Salzman's Iron and Silk and Simon Winchester's The River at the Center of the World.
More than the other two books, "River Town" is the story of a love-hate relationship with China. In my experience, this is the mode of existence that is predominant among expatriates in this country. What is quite unusual about Peter Hessler is the determination with which he tries to see China through Chinese eyes (quite unlike W. Somerset Maugham in "On a Chinese Screen"). He learns the language, he travels hard-seater, takes the slow-boats on the Yangtze, goes hiking among the rice fields, talks with the locals. He takes note of what he sees, and he takes notes. Lots of notes. They become the basis for the abundance of details about everyday life in the city and the college where he teaches.
The book is an impressive document of Hessler's love for the country, and at the same time, beneath the armor of his love, there is the anger and frustration he feels about not being accepted as the well-meaning, open-minded individual that he is (almost like a missionary whose good intentions are not valued). He works admirably hard at understanding the people, the culture, and the land, but the majority of Chinese do not change their idea of who he is, and very few change their behavior towards him. His frustration at being treated as a wai guo ren (the summary term for a person from a foreign country), as opposed to being treated as an individual, is palpable.
I am confident that this book will find readers years from now. For the time being it provides the most comprehensive picture of city life in the rural hinterland of a country in transition. Hessler has witnessed a very traditional China that is about to disappear in the process of the economic modernization, just like parts of the river town are about to be submerged in the lake created by the Three Gorges Dam. He is not sentimental about the old customs and traditions, but there is a whiff of nostalgia and a sense of loss in his book.
River Town is a memoir with an ambition to be more. It is not as original, crisp and witty as Salzman's memoir, and not as erudite as Winchester's travel book. Its ambition is to be poetic and realistic at the same time. Poetic in its depiction of the land, realistic when describing life in Fuling. This makes for a somewhat uneven mixture, and I think the book would have gained if Hessler had kept his talent for poetic evocation apart from his talent for reporting. He is very good at both, no doubt. My feeling was simply that the book would have been even better, albeit shorter, if he had concentrated on just one of his strengths.
River Town has the potential to become a classic China memoir. Peter Hessler is a gifted observer, and a person who has great empathy with the Chinese people. He is someone who tries to understand the country from the bottom up. Very admirable. |
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David Johnson (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-11 00:00>
Peter Hessler paints a wonderful portrait of the complex nature of modern Chinese society. In his classroom, in the remote town of Fuling, and on the Yangtze River he leads the reader on a journey through the lives and times of simple yet remarkable people who are rooted in the past while being firmly nudged to accept a future steeped in the four Modernizations of agriculture, industry, defense, and science. Hessler uses gentle humor and keen powers of observation to bring to life the vignettes of his students and the townspeople. This book is a joy to read. |
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B. Polk (MSL quote), Beijing China
<2007-05-11 00:00>
After reading this book, I felt very proud that the Peace Corps had individuals like Peter and Adam.
I also came to China to teach English but it was in 1979. Conditions were very poor and the influence of the Cultural Revolution could still be seen and felt.
The author makes some very insightful analysis on Chinese society but he gives a background and perspective that helps the reader understand the conditions and difficulties the Chinese people had to face.
Many of the observations that Peter made I observed myself. I could only shake my head in amazement as I read of his experiences. As an American black living in China, I also had some very, very interesting experiences. However, the longer one lives among the Chinese, one cannot ignore their talent, creativity, and their humanity. Peter Hessler wrote a beautiful book. |
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Karen Miedrich-Luo (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-11 00:00>
I spent three years in China on the Yangtze River (Wuhan), overlapping one of those years with Hessler. It has been five years since I left but the memories remain fresh and intense. I read Hessler's account of his two-year teaching stint in the smaller town of Fuling, with delight and astonishment. It was as though someone had read my own journals and put into words what I never could. His ability to evoke the Chinese character and nuances and place his subjects in authentic surroundings is an amazing feat given the complexities of Chinese life. There are no sterotypes here. I had so many similar experiences and conversations with my own students, it defies logic. Yet such is the nature of a country that idealizes uniformity of thought and practice. Hessler is a hero for mastering the language in so short a time for the sake of clarity and understanding those around him. His two-year linguistic journey and the revelations they unfold, are the heart of this book and the one area I so miserably failed in. My regrets are tempered by his success and the fact I now have a brilliantly written book to hand someone when they ask about my experiences in China. |
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D. Paterson (MSL quote), Hong Kong
<2007-05-11 00:00>
I have lived for 27 years in Hong Kong, have travelled regularly and extensively over China since 1980 and have a Chinese wife who was born in Shanghai. However I have learnt as much about the Chinese people from reading this book as perhaps I have from all that I have read over the past 27 years. Of course nothing beats actual experience but "River Town" is certainly the best book I have read about ordinary people of any country, not just of China. |
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Michael LaRocca (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-11 00:00>
I've lived in China for over four years, and in that time I've read many books that westerners have written about this place. It is an incredibly difficult subject, and one that I've declared impossible because I don't speak Chinese. This is by far the most accurate, the most real, the one that really stirs me to say "Yes that's right." But that is not the real reason that this book stands out in my mind. It stands out in my mind because Mr. Hessler is an author. He was an author before he came to China, and he'll die an author. The man can write. To experience something truly worth writing about is only half the job. The other half is to describe it so well that anyone and everyone can "experience" it as well. In that, Hessler excels. I apologize for the hyperbole, but if you only buy one book about China, it really should be this one. I read it three years ago, and I still have my copy. If you could see my book shelf, you'd realize how unusual that is. |
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A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-05-11 00:00>
I spend a lot of time in China and have recently been working/traveling the upper Yangtze area near Fuling. Just recently, while traveling by boat from Chongqing to Yichang I got into reading this book and was mesmerized. The author really captures the essence of life in a remote smallish Chinese city. Anyone interested in learning more about this country than what the papers write about should definitely read this book. |
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Lemas Mitchell (MSL quote), Zhejiang China
<2007-05-11 00:00>
This is a brilliant book. This young man came to China with an open mind and is fundamentally different from much of the young expatriate population here, both in terms of his intellingence and his goals in coming. (Typical personalities: "I'm a Loser Back at Home, but when I come to China I'm a Big Man on Mulberry Street." Another: "I'm Young and Bored and Trying to Convince Myself That There is a Communist Revolution Somewhere.")
Some books that have been written have also tried specifically to address the political issues of this vast country. It is more interesting to someone who is not a professional protestor/ academic to see what happens in practice when some of the Romanticized Sacred Cows of Academics are implemented in Real Life (see: Communism, Authoritarianism, Big Government). This is also not taken from the perspective of people that are constantly whining about Human Rights.
In my opinion, the author does a good job of not reinterpreting China in terms of some of these Sacred Cows, be they of whoever.
The prose is clear, elegant and not overwrought with detail. But the reading is not overly light, either. It's just the things that any person would think about if they came here to teach. Or that any person might want to know if they wanted a perspective of China independent of political slants of any type. |
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1 Total 1 pages 10 items |
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