A view of life for students in China across generations

We often hear about China in the news in big, broad, geopolitical terms like international trade. We rarely hear about life for students and families in China.

Author Peter Hessler was a teacher in China in the 1990s. He returned about 20 years later to teach again and enroll his own twin daughters in public school there. And he found profound changes.

In just one generation, his students went from more rural to more urban; they were more educated; they grew more wealthy and even grew much taller.

Here & Now‘s Scott Tong talks with Peter Hessler about his latest book “Other Rivers: A Chinese Education.”

By Peter Hessler 

From “Other Rivers: A Chinese Education” by Peter Hessler. Used with the permission of the publisher, Penguin Press, an imprint of Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC. Copyright © 2024 by Peter Hessler.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.