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Generation game An American's view of life in China during the turbulent Covid years, through the eyes of his curious, jaded students
The Guardian Weekly
|September 06, 2024
When Peter Hessler, the celebrated chronicler of Chinese society, arrived at Sichuan University in the autumn of 2019, he was expecting to take a break from writing. Hessler made his name as a journalist documenting the lives of everyday people during China's boom years in the early 2000s.
But he first got to know the country as a Peace Corps volunteer in rural Sichuan in the mid-1990s an experience that formed the basis of his first book, River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, a bestseller that introduced a generation of readers to a rapidly changing China. Nearly a quarter of a century on, he had planned to focus his energies on teaching.
This story is from the September 06, 2024 edition of The Guardian Weekly.
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