China’s Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle Class by Peter Hessler

China’s Reform Generation Adapts to Life in the Middle Class

Peter Hessler (China 1996-98) made an unexpectedly early return to the U.S. this past summer. In 2019, the New Yorker correspondent, who served with Peace Corps China 1996–98, moved to the city of Chengdu to teach — more than 20 years after he taught at Fuling Teachers College as a Volunteer. He was planning on a five-year sojourn with his wife and daughters. In May he learned that his contract for teaching nonfiction at Sichuan University-Pittsburgh Institute had not been renewed.

What happened?

The university emailed a statement to Reuters explaining that they had been unable to reach terms for renewing Hessler’s contract. Reuters also noted that in March, Hessler participated in the China Development Forum, “a high-profile government-run event, where he spoke on a panel on media perspectives of how the COVID-19 outbreak was handled in Wuhan.”

And as Foreign Policy noted, the government of China expelled 18 international journalists from the country in the first half of the year alone.  — Published in WorldView Magazine

To read Peter’s new article on his experiences in China published on December 27, 2021 go to:

New Yorker Magazine