"Other rivers : a Chinese education" by Peter Hessler (online)

Note: please put the book request/hold in Toronto Library asap as this book is just published, is extremely popular and will take at least a month of waiting to receive...

Uniquely deep and authentic look at the Chinese education by American writer and journalist of The New Yorker and National Geographic(and receiver of MacArthur foundation "genius" grant), who taught in China for 20 years....

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An intimate and revelatory eyewitness account of two generations of students in China’s heartland, chronicling a country in the midst of tumultuous change through the prism of its education system

More than twenty years after teaching English to China’s first boom generation at a small college in Sichuan Province, Peter Hessler returned to Sichuan to teach 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 in a student body of about two thousand. Over the years, Hessler had kept in close contact with more than a hundred of his former students, who were now in their forties. By reconnecting with these individuals—members of China’s “Reform generation” —while teaching current undergrads, Hessler was able to gain a unique perspective on China's incredible transformation over the past quarter-century.

Check The Guardian review
https://www.theguardian.com/books/article/2024/aug/21/other-rivers-by-peter-hessler-review-an-inside-take-of-chinas-covid-years