Best 1990s China Portrait
River Town : Two Years on the Yangtze
In the late 1990s, a young American teacher arrives in Fuling, a town perched along the Yangtze River in China's interior.
Format
Listen to a Sample
Affiliate link: We may earn a commission if you buy through this link, at no extra cost to you.
About the book
As one of the first Peace Corps volunteers in the country for decades, he finds himself immersed in a world of ancient traditions colliding with rapid modernisation. Through teaching English literature to university students and navigating daily life as an outsider, he develops an intimate portrait of a community on the brink of transformation. This remarkable account captures a pivotal moment in Chinese history, just before the Three Gorges Dam would forever alter the landscape and displace millions. With keen observation, wry humour, and deep empathy, the narrative explores themes of language, identity, and cultural exchange whilst offering rare insights into small-town Chinese life. Both a coming-of-age story and an elegy for a vanishing way of life, this is essential reading for anyone fascinated by modern China.
Book details
Published by John Murray Press
