Rating: 
Summary: A must before doing the Yangtze
Review: I read this book after coming home from China and doing a local boat trip on the Yangtze, travelling on the trains and public transportation from Hong Kong to Beijing. It put me right back into the real China. I could see, hear and smell the cities, towns, farms, boats and people. I will re-read this book many times. Thank you Peter for writing this momoir of your time living there.
Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable, insightful travel book on China
Review: Peter Hessler writes about his experience teaching English in rural China for the Peace Corps. Like any travel book, it covers the geography, history, culture and people of the region.Overall, the book is very readable. It is well written and paints a vivid picture of everyday life in rural China. From this foreigner's experience, the reader comes away with a better understanding of the Chinese character and lifestyle, both positive and negative. While the author does make generalizations about the Chinese, the reader is given the sense that his assumptions are largely correct. Yes, China is an old, diverse country with a complicated mixture of nationalism, communist indoctrination, and constant change. While thousands of people come to Asia to teach English each year, very few of them have the insight (or the curiosity) to delve into the real clockwork of the country around them. Most people come as tourists, and leave as tourists. Ten points: 1. The communist party is everywhere. 10% of the population are party members. It pervades all aspects of life,
especially education. 2. Life is rural China is tough. China is developing into a two tier economy, much like the rest of the world.
The standard of living in the countryside, where most of his experiences take place, is only a fraction
of the lifestyle that Chinese city people enjoy. 3. Really funny stories about his English lessons and their adaptation to the Chinese classroom. Essays on "What if Robin Hood lived in modern day China." Chinese adaptation of Hamlet with Hong Kong
fighting scenes. 4. Three Gorges Dam. It will be the largest in the world and produce the same electricity as 10 nuclear power plants.
Strangely, the majority of the residents are accepting (almost complacent) of the huge change this will have on their
environment and lives. All throughout the city there are markers that read 177 (the height above sea level that dam will raise the water). 5. You can learn Chinese within 2 years if you try. Apparently, the author did. 6. Many of the peculiarities to the Chinese mindset are not entirely Chinese, but Asian. I wonder how much culture shock a Korean, or Japanese born person would have felt in his teaching position. 7. In Xian there is a law which states that all people get a day off if the temperature goes above 35 degrees. The government regulates the official temperature, and during the peak of the summer it is a consistent. . . .
35 degrees. 8. He took a 50 hour train ride through China without a seat. 9. True to the communist roots, people are not ashamed of being working class. When he asks his students what their parents' occupation, the majority of them say "peasants" without the least hesitation. 10. Quote. He wonders about the future of his students.
"He would turn out fine, too. Most of them were that way. They were tough, and sweet and funny, and sad, and people like that would always survive. It wasn't necessarily gold, but perhaps because of that it would stay."
Page 377.
Rating: 
Summary: A fun, anecdotal account of time spent in the Peace Corps
Review: While not the most insightful, well-crafted piece of travel writing out there, Hessler does an admirable job of presenting his audience with his experiences teaching English in a small town on the Yangtze River in China. Hessler came to China as an Ivy-League grad and former English major. Like many his age, he found himself uncertain of the path that he should take after college and so decided to sign up for a stint in the peace corps. Over the course of his two years living abroad, Hessler came to many new understandings both about himself and Asian culture. His anecdotes from the classroom are often hilarious, including his description of the class members picking out English names. Among the more humorous choices were those of two young men - "Mo' Money", and "Daisey". On the other hand, however, Hessler manages to capture the underlying strain of resentment that often accompanies the Ugly American abroad. His descriptions of the town's reaction to him winning a foot race and the small riot that erupted when he began videotaping the townspeople quite admirably point to his own errors in judgement. I enjoyed River Town. A great commuting or travel book.
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Summary: The New Iron and Silk???
Review: To me, the classic book of an American's experience in China is Mark Salzman's Iron and Silk. However, it can be argued that it is dated.
Salzman visited China back in 1982 and was one of the first American's to visit after we re-established relations with the mainland. Also, Salzman was no ordinary visitor. He spoke Chinese and was a martial arts expert. So, he was not exactly the common American and China is no longer the China of 1982.
With this in mind, I anxiously awaited for the paperback of Rivertown. It was reviewed so well by so many book reviewers. Finally, an updated version of Iron and Silk. An American, a more ordinary American in China in 1996-1998...today's China.
I have been fortunate enough to make two visits to China, most recently a quick trip in 2001, but I had my more intense and lengthy experience back in 1998 the same time the author of Rivertown Peter Hessler was there. So this is the China that I remembered. However, my month in China is a very different stay than Hessler's two years in China.
To the books credit, it is a smooth read. In fact, it is quite pleasurable to read and I could not put it down. Hessler hits on some many things that my group of Asia hands, and my crew has made multiple trips throughout Asia can remember. Hessler has captured today's China.
However there is a saying about writing about China. They say if you visit China for a week you can write a book. If you visit for a month you can write an article. If you visit for a year, you can write a newspaper story. And if you stay for longer than a year, you will see so many contradictions to what you thought you knew about China that you could not effectively write anything. And that to me is the problem with Rivertown.
In many ways the book is about nothing. We see, smell, and feel China. Yet, at the same time we do not learn much. And in the end, I barely knew the author. To me, Salzman's book had a point, where this book was a great descriptive book but really was about nothing. Hessler talks about being chased by women in China, but come on for two years he had no romance? Even the visit of his father to China was anti-climatic.
So, in short this book in my mind, while worth reading does not take the place of Iron and Silk as being the book about China.
For a modern travel experience in China, by modern i mean up to date check out the River at the Center of the World by Simon Winchester. Winchester, took a journey up the Yangtze River and it is an awesome look at modern China, Chinese history, travelling, and the author himself. Winchester did, what Hessler didn't: paint China but doing it using history, geography, and personal challenges.
If you are going to China you should read this book, but only after Iron and Silk and the River at the Center of the World.
Rating:
Summary: well worth your time
Review: one of the few books i've read about china written by a westerner that is not patronizing. hessler writes with great observation, sensitivity, humour and humility. he is also a talented writer. i couldn't put the book down.
Rating:
Summary: A Rare Perspective
Review: This is not an easy book to discuss because it does so many things so well. On the surface, it is the story of a young Peace Corps volunteer, named Peter Hessler, who goes to China to teach English literature to college students. The town where the college is located is known as Fuling. It is in the remote province of Sichuan along the Yangtze River. Hessler and his partner, Admam Meier, are the first foreigners to be seen in the town in 50 years. This alone would make Hessler's situation a little unusual, but the fact that both he and Meier immediately begin to question and indirectly challenge the roles they have been assigned, means that Hessler's experiences develop into real adventures. Hessler's first year in Fuling is characterized by culture shock, disillusionment and a stubborn refusal to give up on his goal of learning to read and speak Chinese. He is shocked by the brainwashing of his students, by their intelligence and insightfulness when they are dealing with subjects that they don't have preprogrammed responses to. He struggles with the isolation imposed on him by the rest of the faculty, and begins to make forays into the hills just to get away from the regemented college routine, pollution and crowding. In his second year, his Chinese improves and he begins to make friends in Fuling. He is still frustrated by attempts to control what he teaches, still struggles to understand his students' behavior, but he has begun to find his way in this strange new land. He makes friends with two of the professors, is befriended by a family in town and by a few of the people who have stopped to talk with him. On his breaks he travels to other parts of China. He hikes back into the hills for a second year and talks to the farmers. But for all his understanding and insight, Hessler is never really happy in Fuling. His health is poor, he is disturbed by events at the school, by the fact that all his mail is opened before he receives it, by the political climate of the town and most especially by an alarming encounter with a group of angry townspeople. This last incident seems to crystallize many things for him, and he is ready to leave as the last few weeks of his term come to an end. What makes this book special is Hessler's ability to capture the essence of Fuling - its sights, smells, people and overall character- and his willingness to share his inner process. We are there with him during drinking matches sponsored by the head of the English Department, and are introduced to each of his students. We watch as he struggles to understand their responses, and feel his frustation as he struggles with Chinese. Likewise we can see and smell the food at his favorite noodles shop, applaude his victory in a local cross country race and know his feelngs of anger and helplessness when he learns that one of his students has died. If you have ever wondered what is is like to live in a foreign country, to try to cope with a culture that is radically different from your own; if you have wondered about China and its people, then this is a wonderful place to start your exploration. When you put down River Town you will feel that you have been there too.
Rating:
Summary: An insight into the real China
Review: I have lived for 27 years in Hong Kong, have travelled regularly and extensively over China since 1980 and have a Chinese wife who was born in Shanghai. However I have learnt as much about the Chinese people from reading this book as perhaps I have from all that I have read over the past 27 years. Of course nothing beats actual experience but "River Town" is certainly the best book I have read about ordinary people of any country, not just of China.
Rating: 
Summary: River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze
Review: Hessler's account of his time as a Peace Corps' volunteer offers a unique view of a foreigner's life in China. His humor, introspection and just good writing make a for an excellent read--one I had a hard time putting down. Hessler's evince's maturity beyond his years and I look forward to future accounts of life in China.
Rating:
Summary: A great piece of writing
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed "River Town". Completed it within 2 days. I'm typically someone who reads 3-4 books at any one time, and my fallout rate (ie. books I don't finish reading) is pretty high. But my attention was captured from beginning to end when reading Hessler's book. Well done, Ho Wei ! I've been to the main cities in China, but have relatively little exposure to the interior, especially the towns in the inner depths of the Yangtse. This book has inspired me to make a slow trip down the yangtse next year, and to see the Three Gorges before it disappears. I might just pop into Fuling !
Rating:
Summary: A Different World
Review: Peter Hessler shares with the reader his adaptation to the life of a foreign scholar/teacher in China. His experiences over his two year Peace Corps teaching job show how different the culture in central China is from what we experience in America. We travel with him on his journey of learning as he makes friends and begins to be able to communicate with people he meets outside the University environment. Well written, enjoyable reading. A must for anyone planning to go there.
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