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Reporter 'road warrior'
BEST-SELLING author and journalist Peter Hessler made his name for China reporting at a time of social and economic earthquakes that were, and still are, both dislocating and exhilarating.
Since 1996 he has been telling "the China story" in terms of its people and how they adapt to new realities made possible by relaxation of political controls and a new emphasis on individual enterprise and the right to get rich.
Hessler, who started working in China in 1966 as a US Peace Corps volunteer, is a writer for The New Yorker magazine. He is also the author of three China books, "River Town" (2001) about his teaching in a town (Fuling) in today's Chongqing in the Three Gorges region; "Oracle Bones" (2006), a collection of portraits (including a migrant worker, an entrepreneur, and an oracle bone expert); and "Country Driving" (2010), which explores how the auto boom and road network have transformed China.
Together they form his "China trilogy," considered a must-read for English-language speakers hoping to understand China, a little.
For the past four years, Hessler and his family have been living in a remote part of the US state of Colorado. In September, the 42-year-old American was one of the 22 recipients of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Awards for 2011.
The Wall Street Journal calls Hessler "one of the Western world's most thoughtful writers on modern China."
Many people were riveted by "River Town" and articles such as "Hamlet Meets Mao" about teaching Shakespeare in China as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Now Hessler is off to Cairo for The New Yorker - he arrived last week. His assignment is to rove and write about the impact of sweeping political change in Egypt and throughout the Middle East, again telling the story through the lives of individuals he meets along the way.
Before he left, Shanghai Daily interviewed Hessler by e-mail from his home in Colorado.
Speaking of his move to the Middle East, he said, "I felt like there was a risk of becoming too narrow. If you only write about one subject (China), then your editors and readers believe that's all you can do. And there's a chance you might become complacent."
Some foreigners who have lived in China for many years seem to think they know everything, and nothing can surprise them. "If you tell them something, they'll say, 'Oh, I've seen that' or 'I know that.'
"I didn't want to become that person. I wanted to make sure that China remained fresh and surprises to me," he said.
Hessler studied English literature at Princeton and Oxford universities. Then he embarked on his first trip to China and later spent six months visiting 15 countries while trying to figure out his future. Though he started as a travel writer in the best tradition, with an article about taking the Moscow-Beijing train, Hessler decided he needed something else.
"I wanted to live in a place, learn the language, and try to understand what life was like for the people there. And of all the places I had visited, China, with its rich language and history, interested me the most."
Known as He Wei in China, Hessler's Chinese name was given to him by his Chinese teachers in Chuanshi, Chengdu City, when he joined the Peace Corps. He thinks the surname "He" comes from Hessler, but says there was no special reason for the "Wei" - "it was very random."
But He Wei stuck and that name can easily be found in bookstores around China where his three books have been translated and are quite popular.
Hessler is also a staff writer at The New Yorker and a contributing writer to National Geographic magazine.
"I've never had any interest in a regular job," explained Hessler. "The only full-time job I've ever held was teaching in the Peace Corps. I like to control my own hours and it's important to be independent so I can choose my own projects and the amount of time I want to spend on them. (Being a writer) is the right job for me, no question about that."
As evident in "Country Driving," driving opened up a lot of new roads for Hessler and gave him a new perspective on China. It did the same for Chinese, many of whom had hardly traveled.
In 2001, Hessler got his driver's license and hit the road for seven years. He no longer needed a driver; he had flexibility. He could stop where he wished, stay as long as he liked and explore.
"Driving helped make the Chinese landscape seem more coherent," said Hessler. "I saw the whole stretch of the country from the ocean to the middle of Qinghai. I'm glad I had the opportunity to see it in a different way."
Far more interesting than the landscape were "the people I picked up along the way."
He recalls the Tengger Desert where he encountered fascinating subjects like the quirky ex-soldier who liked to go out every month for a walk in the sands of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. He also met a boy on a bicycle heading home after winning a race in school.
"There were sand dunes all around, with no sign of where this kid might live. And that's how I left him, pedaling happily with his medal around his neck.
"It was always so productive and interesting in China, I was never bored. The place was always full of life even if it was sometimes difficult or tiring. This is all you can ask for as a writer - surrounded by great materials, and it's up to you to record it and figure how to write it," recalled Hessler.
He has also found Chinese people becoming more open and approachable.
"It wasn't so long ago that they wouldn't talk with foreigners because of various fears, but I was fortunate to appear at a time when the country was becoming much more open and fortunate in the generosity of the people I interviewed who shared their lives with me."
It was also in China that Hessler met his Chinese wife Leslie, who was working for the Wall Street Journal. She was a reporter in Shanghai while he was an office assistant earning US$500 a month. "We were not of equal status in those times but we became and stayed friends for many years."
They are now the parents of twin daughters born in 2010. In Colorado Hessler recently wrote about a small-town pharmacist, the only one in 4,000 square miles, and a lifeline of his struggling community. He has also written about organized crime in Japan and a trip back to Fuling, China, where he first taught.
Although he has many fans worldwide, Hessler said, "I've been surprised that people in China are interested in my writing. But it does mean a lot to me. I've never liked the idea that I was writing about China only for Americans and other foreigners. This makes me feel much better about what I do and it (Chinese interest) really is an amazing change."
Chinese today are more willing to listen to what foreigners think of China and in understanding other perspectives on China, he said. "This really is an important development in my opinion, and I wish that Americans had more ability to see their country as if from the outside."
After he returned to the States, Hessler did some more driving and offered a few observations about driving and national characters.
"It's infinitely easier here yet less exciting," he said. "In China there was a sense of adventure, especially when I first started. It was inspiring to see so many people learning this new skill and being able to explore their region for the first time after working so hard to afford a car."
Driving habits reveal a lot about a culture, he said, and in the case of America driving is much more "polite" and "not nearly so brutally competitive" as driving in China. He sees another stage in China's development "to figure out how to have a high-level society that doesn't involve such brutal competition but is more focused on the human aspects of society."
To prepare himself for Egypt, Hessler immersed himself in Arabic for two months.
In the long term, he plans to return to China in around five years. Hessler said he believes that living in and writing about other places will give him skills and perspective he could eventually bring back to China.
"This is a very political moment in Egypt, a time when they are figuring out a new government, a new system," he said.
China remains a magnet.
"My daughters are half Chinese and I want them to learn to speak the language," he said. "There's always so much to learn, and I expect to live in China, and write about China. I see it as a lifetime interest; now it's part of who I am. China is home to me. The US is also home to me. These are places I would never want to say goodbye to forever.
"I have a general idea that someday I would like to spend more time in Fuling and maybe even live and teach there again - who knows?"
'China Trilogy' of changes
Peter Hessler's acclaimed "China Trilogy" documents vividly and in personal terms the sweeping transformations he has witnessed since arriving in China to teach English with the Peace Corps. The books are essential reading for English speakers hoping to grasp an ever-evolving China.
"River Town - Two Years on the Yangtze" (2001) tells the story of teaching in Fuling, part of today's Chongqing, in an area transformed by the Three Gorges Project. His famous article "Hamlet Meets Mao" is based on his teaching Shakespeare there.
"Oracle Bones - A Journey Between China's Past and Present" (2006) takes the approach of an archeologist, constructing a picture of China by looking at pieces, individual portraits (a scholar on oracle bones), to illuminate transformation.
"Country Driving - A Journey through China from Farm to Factory" (2010) explores the implications of the auto boom and road construction. It begins with Hessler's own 7,000-mile drive through rural northern China.
Since 1996 he has been telling "the China story" in terms of its people and how they adapt to new realities made possible by relaxation of political controls and a new emphasis on individual enterprise and the right to get rich.
Hessler, who started working in China in 1966 as a US Peace Corps volunteer, is a writer for The New Yorker magazine. He is also the author of three China books, "River Town" (2001) about his teaching in a town (Fuling) in today's Chongqing in the Three Gorges region; "Oracle Bones" (2006), a collection of portraits (including a migrant worker, an entrepreneur, and an oracle bone expert); and "Country Driving" (2010), which explores how the auto boom and road network have transformed China.
Together they form his "China trilogy," considered a must-read for English-language speakers hoping to understand China, a little.
For the past four years, Hessler and his family have been living in a remote part of the US state of Colorado. In September, the 42-year-old American was one of the 22 recipients of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Awards for 2011.
The Wall Street Journal calls Hessler "one of the Western world's most thoughtful writers on modern China."
Many people were riveted by "River Town" and articles such as "Hamlet Meets Mao" about teaching Shakespeare in China as a Peace Corps volunteer.
Now Hessler is off to Cairo for The New Yorker - he arrived last week. His assignment is to rove and write about the impact of sweeping political change in Egypt and throughout the Middle East, again telling the story through the lives of individuals he meets along the way.
Before he left, Shanghai Daily interviewed Hessler by e-mail from his home in Colorado.
Speaking of his move to the Middle East, he said, "I felt like there was a risk of becoming too narrow. If you only write about one subject (China), then your editors and readers believe that's all you can do. And there's a chance you might become complacent."
Some foreigners who have lived in China for many years seem to think they know everything, and nothing can surprise them. "If you tell them something, they'll say, 'Oh, I've seen that' or 'I know that.'
"I didn't want to become that person. I wanted to make sure that China remained fresh and surprises to me," he said.
Hessler studied English literature at Princeton and Oxford universities. Then he embarked on his first trip to China and later spent six months visiting 15 countries while trying to figure out his future. Though he started as a travel writer in the best tradition, with an article about taking the Moscow-Beijing train, Hessler decided he needed something else.
"I wanted to live in a place, learn the language, and try to understand what life was like for the people there. And of all the places I had visited, China, with its rich language and history, interested me the most."
Known as He Wei in China, Hessler's Chinese name was given to him by his Chinese teachers in Chuanshi, Chengdu City, when he joined the Peace Corps. He thinks the surname "He" comes from Hessler, but says there was no special reason for the "Wei" - "it was very random."
But He Wei stuck and that name can easily be found in bookstores around China where his three books have been translated and are quite popular.
Hessler is also a staff writer at The New Yorker and a contributing writer to National Geographic magazine.
"I've never had any interest in a regular job," explained Hessler. "The only full-time job I've ever held was teaching in the Peace Corps. I like to control my own hours and it's important to be independent so I can choose my own projects and the amount of time I want to spend on them. (Being a writer) is the right job for me, no question about that."
As evident in "Country Driving," driving opened up a lot of new roads for Hessler and gave him a new perspective on China. It did the same for Chinese, many of whom had hardly traveled.
In 2001, Hessler got his driver's license and hit the road for seven years. He no longer needed a driver; he had flexibility. He could stop where he wished, stay as long as he liked and explore.
"Driving helped make the Chinese landscape seem more coherent," said Hessler. "I saw the whole stretch of the country from the ocean to the middle of Qinghai. I'm glad I had the opportunity to see it in a different way."
Far more interesting than the landscape were "the people I picked up along the way."
He recalls the Tengger Desert where he encountered fascinating subjects like the quirky ex-soldier who liked to go out every month for a walk in the sands of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. He also met a boy on a bicycle heading home after winning a race in school.
"There were sand dunes all around, with no sign of where this kid might live. And that's how I left him, pedaling happily with his medal around his neck.
"It was always so productive and interesting in China, I was never bored. The place was always full of life even if it was sometimes difficult or tiring. This is all you can ask for as a writer - surrounded by great materials, and it's up to you to record it and figure how to write it," recalled Hessler.
He has also found Chinese people becoming more open and approachable.
"It wasn't so long ago that they wouldn't talk with foreigners because of various fears, but I was fortunate to appear at a time when the country was becoming much more open and fortunate in the generosity of the people I interviewed who shared their lives with me."
It was also in China that Hessler met his Chinese wife Leslie, who was working for the Wall Street Journal. She was a reporter in Shanghai while he was an office assistant earning US$500 a month. "We were not of equal status in those times but we became and stayed friends for many years."
They are now the parents of twin daughters born in 2010. In Colorado Hessler recently wrote about a small-town pharmacist, the only one in 4,000 square miles, and a lifeline of his struggling community. He has also written about organized crime in Japan and a trip back to Fuling, China, where he first taught.
Although he has many fans worldwide, Hessler said, "I've been surprised that people in China are interested in my writing. But it does mean a lot to me. I've never liked the idea that I was writing about China only for Americans and other foreigners. This makes me feel much better about what I do and it (Chinese interest) really is an amazing change."
Chinese today are more willing to listen to what foreigners think of China and in understanding other perspectives on China, he said. "This really is an important development in my opinion, and I wish that Americans had more ability to see their country as if from the outside."
After he returned to the States, Hessler did some more driving and offered a few observations about driving and national characters.
"It's infinitely easier here yet less exciting," he said. "In China there was a sense of adventure, especially when I first started. It was inspiring to see so many people learning this new skill and being able to explore their region for the first time after working so hard to afford a car."
Driving habits reveal a lot about a culture, he said, and in the case of America driving is much more "polite" and "not nearly so brutally competitive" as driving in China. He sees another stage in China's development "to figure out how to have a high-level society that doesn't involve such brutal competition but is more focused on the human aspects of society."
To prepare himself for Egypt, Hessler immersed himself in Arabic for two months.
In the long term, he plans to return to China in around five years. Hessler said he believes that living in and writing about other places will give him skills and perspective he could eventually bring back to China.
"This is a very political moment in Egypt, a time when they are figuring out a new government, a new system," he said.
China remains a magnet.
"My daughters are half Chinese and I want them to learn to speak the language," he said. "There's always so much to learn, and I expect to live in China, and write about China. I see it as a lifetime interest; now it's part of who I am. China is home to me. The US is also home to me. These are places I would never want to say goodbye to forever.
"I have a general idea that someday I would like to spend more time in Fuling and maybe even live and teach there again - who knows?"
'China Trilogy' of changes
Peter Hessler's acclaimed "China Trilogy" documents vividly and in personal terms the sweeping transformations he has witnessed since arriving in China to teach English with the Peace Corps. The books are essential reading for English speakers hoping to grasp an ever-evolving China.
"River Town - Two Years on the Yangtze" (2001) tells the story of teaching in Fuling, part of today's Chongqing, in an area transformed by the Three Gorges Project. His famous article "Hamlet Meets Mao" is based on his teaching Shakespeare there.
"Oracle Bones - A Journey Between China's Past and Present" (2006) takes the approach of an archeologist, constructing a picture of China by looking at pieces, individual portraits (a scholar on oracle bones), to illuminate transformation.
"Country Driving - A Journey through China from Farm to Factory" (2010) explores the implications of the auto boom and road construction. It begins with Hessler's own 7,000-mile drive through rural northern China.
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