'Memorable... One of [China's] most astute and sensitive foreign observers' Financial Times
'Compassionate... full of warmth' Guardian More than two decades after teaching English in
Sichuan Province Peter Hessler returned to teach China's next generation. In doing so he is
able to tell an intimately unique story about the country's incredible transformation.
Hessler's students embrace the astonishing new opportunities China's boom affords as they
navigate governmental restrictions with pragmatism and a sense of irony. And through his own
twin daughters' education he witnesses first-hand the intense pressures of China's extreme
meritocratic system. Other Rivers demonstrates how education is the perfect lens for
examining China's past present and future - one that also shines a mirror onto how we raise
our own future generations.
