Post 4

In the first full paragraph on page 110, Peter Hessler is surprised by the lack of interest of the Fuling people have about their historical sites being covered by the Yangtze River when the new dam is put up. Most of the Fuling people are not educated enough to really understand the risks of the dam being built. He asks many people in town if they care at all or even know about the risks that the dam will bring in a couple of years but none of the Fuling people care. Hessler then connects this lack of interest that the Fuling people have with the Fuling people not having “a strong sense of community”. Most Fuling communities are consisted of a small group of people, mostly family members (110).

An Example of this lack of community is when hearing the mob of people who would crowd around an accident and constantly ask, “’Sile meiyou? Sile meiyou?’ – Is anybody dead? Is anybody dead?” and not go to help was not very surprising. Like in any country we as civilians must be rubberneckers and look at something that we know we cannot help. So, the Fuling people are just observers of what the dam will bring to their city.

I find the connection that Hessler makes between the nonchalant way of thinking of the Fuling people have about the dam and the lack of community important to understanding Fuling people’s culture. Also when writing about culture it is important to make those connections so that you can better understand what a culture stands for or does not stand for.

Mimi Zycherman