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What Members Thought
I LOVED this book, after reading it, it quickly became one of my favorite books and I ran out and bought Hessler's first book. As an American who first taught in Fuling for two years and now lives in Beijing, Hessler is trying to encapsulate how quickly China is changing, culturally and economically. He also tries to put present day China in context by using oracle bones as a way of broadly discussing Chinese history from the ancient times to Mao. Besides being incredibly interesting, Hessler is
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The author writes about his experiences teaching English there, and his correspondences with students after they have moved on to teach English themselves. It's a nice literary take on changes in modern China. It seems to emphasize the language and literary roots of China that's usually buried underneath most accounts. I really enjoy his investigation into what happened to the literati and scholars during the past century.
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Parts of this book I loved and parts I wasn’t interested in at all. Hessler wanders all over the place, talking to people in China, average people, oddball people. Hessler showed me things about China I’d never thought existed, including ethnic minorities and the slow economic changes occurring.
Jun 22, 2018
Deedee
marked it as to-read
Dewey 951
Apr 09, 2008
Tracyene
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Apr 07, 2011
Jamie
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Oct 11, 2011
Pamela
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Mar 03, 2012
Erin
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Mar 22, 2012
Megan
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Oct 06, 2014
Carey
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Nov 26, 2017
Mary Paul
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Mar 14, 2018
Dana Arbelaez
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May 08, 2021
Kirsten Barber
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Jun 07, 2022
Michelle
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Oct 28, 2023
Deborah
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