OTHER RIVERS

An American writer working in China as a teacher navigates a careful path through a complicated, changing culture.

Beyond the headlines of strategic rivalry and military confrontation with China are countless stories of real people trying to live in a complex country. In his previous books, especially River Town and Country Driving, Hessler, a veteran staff writer for the New Yorker, recounted his experiences of China, focusing on his work as a university-level instructor. In his latest book, he continues the theme, tracking the huge changes that have taken place in the past three decades. The first part of the book is set in the 1990s, when he taught mostly students from poor families. They often struggled with the university experience but worked to make the most of their opportunities. Hessler left after several years. In the second part of the book, he chronicles his return to China in 2019 to teach journalism and nonfiction at Sichuan University. He found that competition between students was intense and that the educational environment had changed significantly. There were surveillance cameras everywhere and an army of bureaucrats issuing opaque orders. There were rabidly nationalist students called “Little Pinks,” who seemed determined to root out any sign of dissent, as well as the ever-present danger of jubao, an anonymous complaint against a teacher that could end their career. Hessler was fired after a few years, effectively expelling him from China, and he was never able to establish why. However, he built solid relationships with a number of students, and he tells their stories with empathy and affection. The text is not an anti-China diatribe; though Hessler is clearly distressed at the country’s direction, he offers an informative, respectful story.

Writing from personal experience, Hessler shines a valuable light on the reality of life in today’s China.