Reflections after reading Jiangcheng

Reflections after reading "River City"

At the end of March this year, I learned about this book from a magazine. A week later, it finally appeared on my desk through convenient online shopping. superior.

After reading the first ten pages, I was sure that I needed to change my reading experience to another book. Although I failed to write the review of the biography as the teacher asked me to do before, and I temporarily changed the book I wrote, I still want to write down some of my thoughts when I read this book. Even if I can't write it comprehensively and profoundly, if it can play a role in introducing a book I like to the teacher, I will feel very satisfied. After all, it is difficult to recover and express the joy of discovering a good book and the various subtle feelings in one's heart while reading through words after reading. The feeling left after reading it in full is often macroscopic and abstract, but after reading this book, I prefer to extract some small fragments from the book and talk about my feelings.

The author of the book "River City" is Peter Hessler, whose Chinese name is He Wei. He grew up in Columbia, Missouri, USA, majored in English and writing at Princeton, and received a master's degree in English literature from Oxford University. In the summer of 1996, he and his companions set out from Chongqing and took a slow boat down the river to Fuling, where they began his two-year teaching life at Fuling Normal College. This is the background for his book "River City".

The focus of "River City" is Fuling, the city where Heisler worked and lived. What revolves around the focus of Fuling is the content and process of Heisler's life and work here. From unfamiliarity to gradual familiarity, from doubt to gradual understanding, from awkwardness to gradual adaptation... Heisler and his companion Adam spent two years in Fuling, which was neither long nor short. Thoughts are extremely rich and urgently need to be expressed and communicated. This is probably how "River City" was born.

When he first arrived in Fuling, everything was unfamiliar to Hales, and he even felt a faint fear because of the many changes he faced so quickly. Fuling has always been a poor county in Sichuan Province. In this place where there is not even a decent road, where even teachers who have been working as university teachers for many years do not have decent salary and living conditions, Hayles and his When their friends first arrived, they moved into the school's most exclusive apartment building, and were quickly equipped with telephones and TVs that were quite expensive in the area at the time. The school even offered to build a tennis court for them... Undoubtedly, Hyles and Adam were greatly affected. The treatment was very special and superior, which made them feel at a loss at first and made them panic. The initially "fearful" life gradually became calmer after they resolutely refused the school to build a tennis court. The author began to truly adapt to and feel Fuling, as well as his work and life in Fuling.

Before actually reading the book "River City", I learned some reviews about this book from magazines. In addition to understanding the author's life through his narration, readers also realize that although the author was in Fuling and described all his experiences and experiences in Fuling, this is actually a microcosm of China at that time. Although Fuling was backward and poor in the 1990s, it was also facing great changes and development. Such rapid and profound changes actually occurred in many places in China at that time. Fuling is one of the representatives, a typical place, a place where the author happened to come into contact with, know and feel about. Many people have read the flavor of subtle insights from this book, so some people say: "If you only read one book about China, this is it."

"River City" The creative background and the author's original intention determine that this book will not be a purely life narrative. It already has a certain depth of exploration and thinking while it is still in the author's mind. But it is undeniable that this work is also very readable and interesting, so much so that I often smile without knowing it when I read it - even when some authors expressed their incomprehension. of trouble.

I think that perhaps many people will smile when reading this book. It has nothing to do with the reader's grasp of the connotation of the work, but a kind and knowing smile purely because of something.

For example, when Helles wrote about the process of learning Chinese, he talked about his understanding of the big words on the school wall: at the beginning: "Build spiritual culture, update the concept of fertility. Control the growth of people's mouth, Promote social progress. Education is the foundation of the country." I can hardly understand these Chinese contents. Later, after a period of study, the words on the wall became to Hailes: "build spiritual culture, new give birth concept. Population increase, promote society progress. Education is a powerful country's foundation." In the end, Hailes Les was finally able to use Chinese thinking to understand the words on the wall. It turned out to be: "Build spiritual civilization and update the concept of fertility. Control population growth and promote social progress. Education is the foundation of a strong country." When the reader read this, he finally When Helles and I understood some of these Chinese slogans that are quite common and easy to understand in China, I couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief: That's it, and then I smiled happily.

The author's own literary accomplishment and writing skills endow this work with a strong storytelling and readability. Different from a simple narrative technique, I think the author's language is more similar to an expression that combines narrative and discussion. This makes the content of the article fascinating, and often makes people read nearly a hundred pages without feeling bored and out of control.

Hales once said: “Here, sometimes I am a bystander, and sometimes I am immersed in local life. This combination of close and distant observation formed part of my two-year stay in Sichuan. Life." After reading this book, and looking at the author's visual and ideological process of creation, I really feel that this is a flesh-and-blood book. Perhaps it is this unique and even contradictory perspective that makes the author have a different understanding of Fuling and China. It evokes such an emotion and triggers the idea of ??thinking and creation. As some readers commented: "It studies core issues in China, but it does not achieve this goal by interpreting famous political or cultural figures, nor does it make macro-scale and unsuitable analyses. It believes that by narrating ordinary Chinese people ""

But even though people gave this work such high praise, Hayles seemed very modest and cautious. He said: "This is not a book about China. A book about China, it only covers a small place in China during a specific period of time. Geographically and historically, Fuling is located in the middle reaches of the river, so it is sometimes difficult for people to see where it comes from and where it is going. Between 1996 and 1998, I learned to love Fuling. It feels so good to be back on the Yangtze River again, even if its old rapids only exist in my memory. "As a reader, even after you have finished reading the work. I have made comments, even sublimated the theme and spirit of the article, and gained a lot of new understanding and inspiration. But now when you see the author’s words, you will still be moved - if you don’t have deep feelings and emotions for the land of China, With respect, I probably can’t write such an outstanding work.

After reading this book, you will find that the author’s love for China is deeply hidden in the meaning of the article, and you will be driven to get closer to the land where you grew up. She seems to be getting cuter and cuter. This is perhaps the most thought-provoking and moving element of this work.