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.
Political Scientist Iza Ding on Authoritarianism, Legitimacy, and "Resilience"
The View from China: Leading IR scholar Da Wei of Tsinghua's CISS
Did Netflix's Adaptation Ruin The Three-Body Problem?
Live from AAS in Seattle: What has become clear to you recently?
Back to the Future: David M. Lampton and Thomas Fingar on What Went Wrong and How to Fix It
Kerry Brown: on What does the West Wants from China, and the Exercise of Chinese Power
Historian Rana Mitter on ideology in China's "New Era" — live from Salzburg, Austria
Schwarzman Scholars Capstone Showcase: The 2023 Winners
The Ukrainian Factor in China's Strategy: a roundtable
This Week in China's History: The Qing Abdication — February 12, 1912
Sinica comes roaring back in the Year of the Dragon: A chat with Jeremy Goldkorn
Live from New York: China and the Global South, with Maria Repnikova and Eric Olander
In Memoriam: Jeffrey A. Bader, from February 2022
Live from Chicago: Decoding China — China’s economic miracle interrupted?
Robert Daly of the Kissinger Institute on the morality of U.S. China policy
China Tobacco: How China's tobacco monopoly also has ensured that China keeps smoking
The Philadelphia Orchestra commemorates the 50th anniversary of its groundbreaking China tour
Ian Johnson on "Sparks," his new book on China's underground historians
U.S. Congressman Rick Larsen (D-WA) on his new U.S.-China policy white paper
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free