First 25 Pages

Throughout the first 25 pages of Peter Hessler’s River Town he lightly touches on some of the culture of China in 1997, but he mostly just writes about his observations. The experience he had with the culture that stood out to me was when the college continued to buy Peter an Adam unnecessary appliances. At first they gave them a telephone, then a new washing machine, and soon enough the college was about to take down the croquet area for a tennis court. This seemed rather generous, but then it could also just be a characteristic of Chinese culture. I do recall the Chinese being adamant about being good hosts for their guests- which Adam and Peter were in this case.

Another interesting aspect of the novel so far was when Peter had his students choose English names. This section was rather comical as the students chose names after famous American icons. This was interesting because it gave an idea of what the world culture of America was in 1997. This perception or American culture isn’t still completely true today as our hero’s and icons have changed since then, but the idea that major icons has a lot to do with culture stays true throughout every generation. And although this isn’t really giving us as readers more insight to Chinese culture, it does give us more ideas about what culture could mean, because China also has major political and social figures that have absolutely affected and perhaps changed their culture, just like “Armstrong” or “Hellen Keller” did to ours.