D Shi’s Reviews > River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze > Status Update

“I had assumed that they (the dissidents) were noble characters——charismatic, intelligent, farsighted, brave…All I had was Rebecca——he was the only one, and he was a loser. He was a bad student, and he was socially awkward. He had no friends. He had a girl’s name…if there were big changes in China’s future, it was hard to imagine them coming from people like Rebecca…”

I get a strange feeling reading hessler’s comments on three gorges dam, a strange but familiar feeling. I grew up taking the existence of three gorges dam as they are, the debate and criticism around it just seem like distant echoes. I am not aware of the possibility that this, like many other things, could not have happened.

Wow I am so impressed by hessler’s observations and remarks on the exclusive collectiveness and indifference of FuLing crowds, if not Chinese society in general. Reading hessler’s work made me realized that I have lost touch with the society that I grew up in. My impression of China (Chinese people) is both idealized and demonized :(