The China Trilogy Series

Recommended Reading Order

1. River town : two years on the Yangtze

   • Peter Hessler

   • 402 pages
   • 15 hours of reading

   In the heart of Sichuan's Fuling, a city long distanced from the political hustle of Beijing and Shanghai, change is on the horizon. As Fuling evolves, it becomes a site of tension, reform, and growth, while its residents grapple with the uncertain future. Peter Hessler arrived in 1996 as a Peace Corps volunteer, marking the first American presence in over fifty years. Teaching English and American literature at the local college, he explored how Western classics resonate with students shaped by the Communist Party's teachings. His students, in turn, educated him about the complexities of Fuling and the nuances of a radically different society. Hessler's immersion reveals a pivotal moment for the city, balancing its troubled Communist past—including land reform struggles and the Cultural Revolution's impact—with the impending changes brought by the Three Gorges Dam, which threatens to flood Fuling and displace over a million people. Through his travels across Sichuan, he vividly portrays the diverse individuals he encounters, from priests to peasants, sharing their perspectives. This narrative blends Hessler's personal experiences with rich descriptions of the landscape and history, creating an imaginative and poignant account of a city navigating its identity amid transformation.

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2. Oracle Bones

   • Peter Hessler

   • 491 pages
   • 18 hours of reading

   An American journalist living in Beijing offers an intriguing odyssey through twenty-first-century China as seen through the eyes of a handful of ordinary people, including Polat, a member of an ethnic minority seeking freedom in the U.S.; Anne, a migrant factory worker; and Chen Mengjia, a scholar of oracle bone inscriptions. 60,000 first printing.

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3. Country Driving

   A Chinese Road Trip

   • Peter Hessler

   • 400 pages
   • 14 hours of reading

   In the summer of 2001, Peter Hessler, the longtime Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, acquired his Chinese driver's license. For the next seven years, he traveled the country, tracking how the automobile and improved roads were transforming China. Hessler writes movingly of the average people farmers, migrant workers, entrepreneurs who have reshaped the nation during one of the most critical periods in its modern history. Country Driving begins with Hessler's 7,000-mile trip across northern China, following the Great Wall, from the East China Sea to the Tibetan plateau. He investigates a historically important rural region being abandoned, as young people migrate to jobs in the southeast. Next Hessler spends six years in Sancha, a small farming village in the mountains north of Beijing, which changes dramatically after the local road is paved and the capital's auto boom brings new tourism. Finally, he turns his attention to urban China, researching development over a period of more than two years in Lishui, a small southeastern city where officials hope that a new government-built expressway will transform a farm region into a major industrial center.

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