Content area
Full Text
Peter Hessler. Country Driving: A Journey through China from Farm to Factory. Li Xueshun, trans. Nonfiction. Shanghai. Shanghai Translation Publishing House. 2011. 426 pages. 33 RMB. ISBN 9789868646766
Country Driving is the final book in Peter Hessler's documentary trilogy on China, which includes River Town and Oracle Bones. Country Driving was first published in China in 2011, and during the past two years it has been republished twelve times. It is a book of great influence and popularity among Chinese readers.
This book includes three parts: The Wall, The Village, and The Factory. When the author travelled along the ancient route of the Great Wall, he documented the landscape, the people, and the conventions typical of the northern part of China. The Wall thus came into being. While he lodged in a village in Hebei Province and later in a small factory in Lishui, a town in Zhejiang Province, he began to gain an objective knowledge of the present situation of Chinese agriculture and industry at a micro level. The Village and The Factory are a record of the author's survey of these two places.
In this nonfiction book, the main figures are not invented characters or epitomes of Chinese people, but all are real, average Chinese whose names could be tracked. The author regards Chinese society as a dynamic working unit that is like a new construction built upon relics. His observation is not limited to several people or a certain group of people; he hasn't stereotyped Chinese into different classes, but has truly documented the changes taking...