River Town

彼得·海斯勒(Peter Hessler)，中文名何伟，曾任《纽约客》驻北京记者，以及《国家地理》杂志等媒体的撰稿人。他成长于美国密苏里州的哥伦比亚市，在普林斯顿主修英文和写作，并取得牛津大学英语文学硕士学位。海斯勒曾自助旅游欧洲三十国，毕业后更从布拉格出发，由水陆两路横越俄国、中国到泰国，跑完半个地球，也由此开启了他的旅游文学写作之路。海斯勒散见于各大杂志的旅游文学作品，数度获得美国最佳旅游写作奖。他的中国纪实三部曲中，《江城》一经推出即获得“奇里雅玛环太平洋图书奖”，《甲骨文》则荣获《时代周刊》年度最佳亚洲图书等殊荣。海斯勒本人亦被《华尔街日报》赞为“关注现代中国的最具思想性的西方作家之一”。

出版者:Harper Perennial

作者:[美] 彼得·海斯勒

页数:416

出版时间:2001-12-24

价格:13.95美元

装帧:平装

isbn号码:9780060953744

图书标签:PeterHessler外国人看中国中国游记何伟社会文化Hessler

In 1996, 26-year-old Peter Hessler arrived in Fuling, a town on China's Yangtze River, to begin a two-year Peace Corps stint as a teacher at the local college. Along with fellow teacher Adam Meier, the two are the first foreigners to be in this part of the Sichuan province for 50 years. Expecting a calm couple of years, Hessler at first does not realize the social, cultural, and personal implications of being thrust into a such radically different society. In River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, Hessler tells of his experience with the citizens of Fuling, the political and historical climate, and the feel of the city itself.

"Few passengers disembark at Fuling ... and so Fuling appears like a break in a dream--the quiet river, the cabins full of travelers drifting off to sleep, the lights of the city rising from the blackness of the Yangtze," says Hessler. A poor city by Chinese standards, the students at the college are mainly from small villages and are considered very lucky to be continuing their education. As an English teacher, Hessler is delighted with his students' fresh reactions to classic literature. One student says of Hamlet, "I don't admire him and I dislike him. I think he is too sensitive and conservative and selfish." Hessler marvels,

You couldn't have said something like that at Oxford. You couldn't simply say: I don't like Hamlet because I think he's a lousy person. Everything had to be more clever than that ... you had to dismantle it ... not just the play itself but everything that had ever been written about it.

Over the course of two years, Hessler and Meier learn more they ever guessed about the lives, dreams, and expectations of the Fuling people.

Hessler's writing is lovely. His observations are evocative, insightful, and often poignant--and just as often, funny. It's a pleasure to read of his (mis)adventures. Hessler returned to the U.S. with a new perspective on modern China and its people. After reading River Town, you'll have one, too. --Dana Van Nest, Amazon.com

读后感

原文链接 http://www.ilmare.cn/?p=225 看何伟(Peter Hessler)的这本书其实是一个非常愉快的过程，这本书是我的老师文中先生推荐的。拿到这本书是10月初的事情了。这两个月一直断断续续地看着River Town，这本书算是我看过的第一本真正意义上的原版书籍。 这是一个美国人描...  

一、 在翻开这本书之前，我对它的内容一点概念也没有，在我的想象里，它大概是本游记，也可能是一个关于中国问题的文化层面的评论集。我完全没想到，它其实只是作者在涪陵的两年教书生涯的生活记录而已。 这多少让我有点失望。并不是这种形式有什么问题，只是它实在是太「容...  

【汗，翻页电梯】http://book.douban.com/review/5331789/?start=100 1996年至1998年间，那个叫彼得•海斯勒的“蓝眼睛”美国人，来到了中国重庆附近、长江边上的小城涪陵，在那儿的涪陵师专，做了一名外教，他还给自己取了中文名字叫何伟，不久，他写了一本书叫《江城》来...  

一、 在翻开这本书之前，我对它的内容一点概念也没有，在我的想象里，它大概是本游记，也可能是一个关于中国问题的文化层面的评论集。我完全没想到，它其实只是作者在涪陵的两年教书生涯的生活记录而已。 这多少让我有点失望。并不是这种形式有什么问题，只是它实在是太「容...  

看这本书的时候，我的感受有点奇怪，因为我感觉到自己的思路明显是和Peter站在一边的。简单的说，我在他的书看到了以前的自己，而现在的我一直用一种带有西方价值观的思维方式去审视过去的，包括以前的教育和在这个教育体制下产生的我。虽然我并不来自四川，但是书里面提到的...  

用户评价

人生中第一本英文书，总算读完了！

爆笑

看了一半没看完，有机会还是看原版的好。

太好看了各种停不下来的一本书

2011.04.02 我读的网友翻译的中文版。何伟的文字冷静，扎实，透过他的观察和记录，来重新认识我们生长的国度，觉整个人都要升华了。说起来有点可悲，但也可以用“不识庐山真面目，只缘身在此山中”来开脱一下。