Other Rivers: A Chinese Education
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15
Ratings1
Average rating5
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.
Reviews with the most likes.
Nothing has changed, yet everything has changed. A good read on China's retrograde under Xi Jinping's dominance.
Several points in the book really resonate with me
1. Fear of Naming Xi Jinping
Chinese students avoid mentioning Xi Jinping by name, even if when they are living in the United States. As Hessler explains through the words of a student, the name carries an overwhelming association with power and punishment. It's true. Within China's Great Firewall, posts with anything that sounds remotely similar to “Xi Jinping” (e.g., 细颈瓶 Xi Jingping aka a flask used in chemistry) get swiftly censored or deleted. Posting such content often comes with temporary or permanent account bans. In some cases, a local police might give you a call, and you might be requested to have a “tea-drinking” session in the local station where your phone and social media accounts are examined and you are required to sign a document agreeing to “behave” yourself online. In the not-so-rare cases that you post becomes slightly virial (shared more than 500 times), you face the real risk criminal charge. Even outside of China, the existence of secret Chinese police stations in various Western countries has made criticizing Xi Jinping an increasingly risky endeavor.
2. Taiwan
Discussing Taiwan is another minefield for overseas Chinese. It's a deeply sensitive topic to most Chinese, but in a different way to the topic of Xi Jinping. While many Chinese tend to avoid sensitive discussions, the mere mention of Taiwan's independent status often sparks impassioned reactions. Those who would otherwise remain silent are quick to assert, “Taiwan is not a country; it's part of China,” reflecting the deeply ingrained narrative.
3. Reluctance to Have Children
Having gone through the system myself, the thought of my child enduring the same logical struggles I faced at a young age haunts me. It's unsettling to imagine them grappling with the same contradictions and confusion that shaped my early years.
