Archive - March 3, 2024

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Picture the Way It Was
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Peter Hessler Sells His Car in China

Picture the Way It Was

  After seeing the photos Guy Marion (Afghanistan  1971–75) shared  at “Photos from Afghanistan” that showed what it was like for Guy in-country, I thought “that’s what we need!” John agreed! So if you would like to share what it looked like where you were and what you were doing, send me — a maximum of 8 in-country photos with a caption for each — your work, your living quarters, your town, etc, a recent head-shot  of yourself and a paragraph about what you did, and when it was. Marian  marian@haleybeil.com

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Peter Hessler Sells His Car in China

CENSORED ESSAY: PETER HESSLER SELLS HIS CAR Posted by Alexander Boyd | Feb 29, 2024   Acclaimed writer Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) is selling his car in Chengdu, after leaving China in 2021 when his teaching contract was abruptly terminated. Online, the sale of his Honda CRV has spurred a series of reflections on Hessler’s impact on China and on the closing of a chapter in U.S.-China relations. Hessler wrote three famous books on China: River Town, on his Peace Corps service in rural Chongqing; Oracle Bones, a portrait of China past and present with the recurring eponymous motif of China’s oldest recorded writing system; and “Country Driving,” a travelogue detailing his journeys across China. (A fourth, Other Rivers, is on the way.) Some of the reflections on Hessler have proven politically sensitive. In an essay that was later censored, the writer Zhang Feng took to WeChat to lament Hessler’s departure as a . . .

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