Peter Hessler, live at Duke University's Nasher Museum

Sinica Podcast

Kaiser Kuo

Culture, China News, Hangzhou, Chinese, International Relations, Chongqing, Beijing, Sichuan, Currentaffairs, China, Politics, Chengdu, Shanghai, Guangzhou, China Economy, News, China Politics, Business, Film, Shenzhen

4.8 • 676 Ratings

🗓️ 22 February 2024

⏱️ 79 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week on Sinica I'm delighted to bring you a live conversation with writer Peter Hessler, recorded at Duke University's Nasher Auditorium in Durham, North Carolina on November 10, 2023. The event was sponsored by the Duke Middle East Studies Center and the Asian Pacific Studies Institute, and was titled "Modern Revolutions in Ancient Civilizations."

Peter, known for both his trilogy of books written in China — Rivertown, Oracle Bones, and Country Driving — as well as for his reporting for The New Yorker, talks about how his years in China gave him perspective when living in Cairo and writing about Egypt during the Arab Spring. His book on Egypt, The Buried: An Archaeology of the Egyptian Revolution, was made richer for me by the comparisons and contrasts with China threading throughout.

Special thanks to Griffin Orlando of the Middle East Study Center and Alex Nickley from the Asia Pacific Studies Institute, and Ralph Litzinger from Duke Anthropology.

6:27 – What Peter’s China experience brought to his writing on China — and vice-versa

9:45 – Contrasting the Chinese and Egyptian revolutions

18:37 – Revolution in thinking in Egypt and China

35:49 – Peter on his approach to the craft of reporting and writing

51:47 – Peter’s work in China as a longitudinal cohort study — and what it reveals so far

58:03 – A preview of Peter’s forthcoming book, Other Rivers

Recommendations:

Peter: Gerald Durrell, My Family and Other Animals is one of the books

Kaiser: Kenneth W. Harl’s book Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilization.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to this special live recording of the Cynica podcast coming to you from Duke University's beautiful Nashir Museum.
0:06.0	Hello, Durham.
0:08.0	Wow.
0:16.0	I'm just looking around, I see so many friends in the audience. I'm delighted.
0:20.0	It's just been so wonderful to be part
0:21.7	of this community, which is just one of the best places on the planet. I absolutely love it.
0:26.9	Thank you so much to my dear friend, Ralph Litzinger, from Duke Anthropology, for that. Very kind and
0:32.1	embarrassing intro. A huge thanks also to Griffin, Orlando of the Duke Middle East Study Center,
0:37.5	and to Alex Nickley of the Asian Pacific Studies Institute, also here at Duke,
0:42.0	who worked so hard to make this event happen and to bring in our guest today.
0:46.5	It is such a huge treat to record a live show right here up the street from where I live,
0:52.7	and an even bigger treat because today I am
0:54.5	chatting with somebody who not only do I admire and respect but who I've known since the
1:00.0	90s and really count as a friend, someone who also happens to be my favorite nonfiction writer
1:06.7	full stop. I really mean that. For the last quarter century, Pete Hessler has been writing deeply
1:13.6	empathic articles and books on China, which, for a change, present characters who I do recognize.
1:21.1	Like a gifted Chinese painter working in Incan silk, he can capture the inner life and essence of people with only a few
1:30.8	deft strokes. They emerge in his spare and elegant prose with all their humanity and their
1:38.6	dignity or their goofiness or their awkward shyness or their pomposity or their just utter ridiculousness or their sly, or their awkward shyness, or their pomposity, or their just utter ridiculousness,
1:46.5	or their sly humor, whatever is called for.
1:50.1	And he is a master of show, don't tell.
1:53.9	He's able to convey all those attributes
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Kaiser Kuo, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Kaiser Kuo and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.