River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler

Recently read this fascinating non-fiction account of Peter Hessler's two years as a Peace Corps English professor at a provincial Chinese college in Fuling, on the Yangtze River as the Three Gorges Dam is being built (1996-98). Fascinating reflections on contemporary China, their history and worldview, nationalism, what "community" means, understanding a culture through its language (he actually learns Mandarin in two years), the universals in great literature as well as the particular cultural lenses we look through as we experience art. His chapter entitled "Shakespeare with Chinese characteristics" is fabulous. The book is a great reminder that, despite our greater interconnectivity through technology, the world is far from monochromatic.