
Other Rivers
A Chinese Education
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Narrated by:
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Peter Hessler
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By:
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Peter Hessler
About this listen
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.
©2024 Peter Hessler (P)2024 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“In River Town (2001), Hessler described teaching English and learning Chinese in the remote town of Fuling. Back after 20 years, much has changed . . . Throughout, Hessler shares the words of his students—variously curious, skeptical, tired, and wise—in what is, at heart, a meditation on teaching and learning from one’s students.” —Booklist (starred)
“Hessler paints an expansive panorama of China . . . The result is an enthralling take on China’s remarkable progress and its downside.” —Publishers Weekly (starred)
“Beyond the headlines of strategic rivalry and military confrontation with China are countless stories of real people trying to live in a complex country . . . [Hessler] tells [students’] stories with empathy and affection . . . shines a valuable light on the reality of life in today’s China.” —Kirkus
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Peter Hessler is obviously the best narrator for this new book.
Great book, a bit too much overlap with the previous book though.
I especially enjoyed the detailed interactions with common sense staff members. Sadly I didn’t know that such a magazine existed.
Peter Hessler did a great job narrating this book
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The author’s compassion and love for China and his Chinese students.
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Spot on for China retrograde
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Peter Hessler undefeated
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Great follow up to “River Town”
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Real
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An extremely moving and honest account of contemporary China
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The accuracy of observations. The outstanding perspective.
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I used similar books while teaching courses before this Hessler book came out or I would have used it intensely. He conveys a good sense of how most things work well despite the authoritarian political system, including how the bureaucratic system creates interstices. His 25+ years experience adds to the richness.
Of particular interest was his account of his daughters’ elementary school, because my son and daughter both attended a local elementary school in Tokyo. The early schooling environment in the US, Japan and China clearly have a large and lasting impact on their societies. There appears to be a lot in common across China, but in Japan there’s disparity by high school (see Tom Rohlen’s study of 3 high schools), and even more in the US, with elite AP students alongside the functionally illiterate and innumerate.
What I don’t know is the impact of declining population on schools. Here Japan is in the vanguard, with widespread closures, particularly in rural communities where some neighborhoods have no one under age 70. Time for interlibrary loan requests? - I no longer have to go to Tokyo to access Japanese language materials.
Oh, and in learning to read Chinese, Hessler’s book indicates that I surely need to track down a couple anthologies of Tang poems as it’s part of the basic vocabulary even at the elementary school level. For Japan that’s not needed, “hyakunin isshu” (100 poems from 100 writers) aren’t quoted much, and in contemporary English novels authors seem compelled to have their characters point out when they’re quoting Shakespeare.
In sum, this is well worth reading for everyone with an interest in contemporary China. But it should be read more widely, for its insights in sociology and education.
From education to surviving politics, reflecting firsthand experience
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A meh book
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