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 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

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