After reading River Town, by Peter Hessler, as well as out studies of the culture differences from across the world. Culture now has a greater meaning to me than it did before taking this class, or by reading our books. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, culture is defined as “the customary beliefs, social forms, and material traits of a racial, religious, or social group.’’ Culture is everything within how we live our lives. Culture is an aspect of how groups of people live, speak, believe, and even eat. Cultures can be so distinct even to create dividers and barriers among us whether its behavioral or lingual. We can see this especially among the American and Chinese cultures like the One China policy.
Peter Hessler’s book, River Town, is his nonfiction novel written about his time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Fuling, China. Himself and other volunteers were sent to Fuling, a town on the Yangtze River, to teach at a teachers college in 1996. During Peter’s time at the college he taught English and American Literature however, he had to teach it with chinese characteristics. As at this time China is still heavily communist. Peter’s novel is written with great detail as this was his life for two years. He was able to add stories and details that made his writings emotional as well as personal for the reader. With immense detail, he was able to describe his observations of political, social, and cultural problems in china as his experiences as a foreigner. Adam, Peter’s fellow Peace Corp volunteer, and Peter arrived to Fuling they were showered with gifts as well as large banquets. They were given everything they wanted as to make them feel comfortable during their time in China.
When Peter would walk outside of the campus of college, people would stare and rubberneck. At this time Peters ability to speak Mandarin was poor making it harder for him to seem less of an outsider. Peter started to spend a lot of his personal time to better learn Mandarin to become proficient in the language. With his proficiency, Peter starts to develop connections as well as friendships which help him to feel more comfortable in Fuling.
