This week on Sinica, the highly-regarded writer Peter Hessler joins to talk about his new book, out July 9: Other Rivers: A Chinese Education. Over 20 years after teaching with the Peace Corps in Fuling (the subject of his first book, Rivertown, Pete returns to China to teach at Sichuan University in Chengdu. He writes about the two cohorts of students, with whom he has maintained extensive contacts, to offer fascinating insights into how China has changed across this momentous period with touching, deeply human stories.
3:47 – Why Pete couldn’t teach in Fuling again
6:56 – How Pete stayed in touch with his Fuling cohort
9:46 – Pete’s SCUPI [(Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute)] cohort
13:51 – Pete’s Fuling cohort
19:35 – Chinese rural values: pragmatism and modesty
23:08 – The physical and psychological differences between the Fuling and Chengdu cohorts
29:32 – “Educated acquiescence” in the Chinese education system
35:07 – The Hessler family’s experience with Chengdu Experimental Primary School
43:04 – The impending lack of “country feel,” and Pete’s sense of humor
47:02 – Facing criticism over his reporting during the pandemic
52:13 – Pete’s experience being jǔbào’ed — reported — and teaching Orwell’s Animal Farm
59:01 – Pete’s take on the COVID origins debate
1:02:10 – Competition and authoritarianism in China, and the phenomenon of Chinese and Chinese American Trump supporters
1:06:57 – Serena’s investigation for Chángshì and why Pete’s contract was not renewed
1:15:28 What’s next for Pete
Recommendations:
Pete: Burma Sahib by Paul Theroux, a forthcoming novel about George Orwell’s time in Burma as a policeman; Burmese Days by George Orwell
Kaiser: the Meta Quest VR headset
Peter Hessler on his new book, "Other Rivers: A Chinese Education"