River Town
Two Years on the Yangtze
by Peter Hessler
Overview
From the Publisher
When Peter Hessler joined the Peace Corps, he expected to spend a couple of peaceful years teaching English in the town of Fuling along the Yangtze River. But what he experienced—the natural beauty, cultural tension, and complex process of understanding that takes place when one is thrust into a radically different society— surpassed anything he could have imagined. Hessler observes firsthand how major events like the death of Deng Xiaoping, the return of Hong Kong to the mainland, and the controversial construction of the Three Gorges Dam have sent tremors large enough to sweep through China and reach the people of Fuling. Poignant, thoughtful, and utterly compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city caught mid-river in time, much like China itseld—a country seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.
My thoughts
For some reason it took me a long time to get through this book. I got stuck on the chapter called "The Dam" and lost interest in the book. I finally ended up skipping the rest of that chapter, and then I was back to really enjoying the book. I can't really explain why that happened because it's an interesting and integral part of the book, but it happened so there you have it.
That aside, this was an intriguing book. I have read a lot of travel journals and thus have come across a lot of different cultures and societies, but I've never encountered the Chinese as they were portrayed in this book. I felt a lot of emotion for the author and the things he was subjected to as well as for the students he taught and the Chinese people as a whole. On one hand I greatly admired the people for standing so firm in their beliefs, and on the other I felt sorry for them, as well as distrustful of them, for their skewed version of history. It made me question a lot of things, including propaganda from our own country, and opened my eyes to a political world that boggles my mind.
I particularly liked the part of this book when the author's father comes to visit and the author gets to see Fuling from the eyes of a tourist. I felt that segment of the book tied the whole thing together poignantly.
A very good book, an emotional read, and some tears shed at the end of the book. I loved the appendages where we got to meet the author and read the post script of how things have changed since the book was written. Nice job, Mr. Hessler.
Favorite Passage
"China is a democratic country."
"But some Chinese think it's a problem that there's only one party, don't they?" I asked.
"No," she said. "All of us support the Communist Party. And we have elections all the time - we had one recently. China is a democratic country."
"Do you think that China has any Capitalis Characteristics?" I asked, because this was something else Teacher Kong and I had discussed. We had talked about the way capitalism was taking hold as Chinese state-owned enterprises were privatized, and how the reforms allowed people to won private businesses. But everything was different with Teacher Liao - the language was the same, but its political parameters shifted dramatically whenever I changed between my two teachers.
"China has no Capitalist Characteristics," she said flatly. "It is Socialism with Chinese Characteristics."
It was pointless to argue with Teacher Liao, at least with regard to politics where she strictly followed the government line. And it was remarkable how far this line stretched; in Fuling bookstores you could buy a copy of the Constitution of the People's Republic of China, which included Article 35, Section II:
"Citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession, and of demonstration."
