When Peter Hessler, a prominent chronicler of modern China, agreed to teach at Sichuan University, it looked like an odd move for a bestselling American author in his prime. Hessler, now 55, a longtime staff writer for the New Yorker magazine, had twin daughters in school in the U.S., and a wife who was working on a book about Egypt. But he also had a carefully scripted plan.
Early in his writing career, Hessler had soared to fame with his first book, "River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze," about serving with the U.S. Peace Corps in the 1990s as a teacher in Fuling, a small town on the Yangtze River. In the ensuing decades he kept in touch with his students, referencing them regularly in subsequent books and long articles in the New Yorker.
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