Peter Hessler Bücher

Zum 10. Jahrestag des Arabischen Frühlings: „Originell und zutiefst menschlich – anders als alles, was ich über die ägyptische Revolution gelesen habe.“ Anand Gopal Noch immer blickt die Welt auf den Nahen Osten, um die Folgen des Arabischen Frühlings zu verstehen. Doch aus der Distanz bleibt vieles verborgen. Peter Hessler erzählt die ägyptische Revolution aus dem Alltag der Menschen heraus. Ein Abfallsammler, der aus Kairos Müll mehr herauslesen kann als jeder Archäologe. Ein Arabischlehrer mit Faible für Ägyptens sozialistische Vergangenheit. Und ein schwuler Mann, der in einem Muslimbruder einen unerwarteten Verbündeten findet. In einer brillanten literarischen Reportage bringt Peter Hessler Persönliches und Politisches, Gegenwart und Geschichte zusammen und entwirft so ein schillerndes Porträt einer Gesellschaft im Umbruch.

Im Sommer 2001 legt Peter Hessler, langjähriger Peking-Korrespondent des New Yorker, die chinesische Führerscheinprüfung ab und wird Teil der über 1000 Fahranfänger in der Hauptstadt. In den folgenden Jahren wird er Zeuge der enormen Veränderungen, die der Ausbau der Verkehrsinfrastruktur für das Land und seine Menschen mit sich bringt. Er folgt mit dem Auto dem Verlauf der Großen Mauer westwärts, oft auf primitiven Landstraßen und als einziger Ausländer weit und breit. Trotz der Abgeschiedenheit der Provinzen im Nordwesten eröffnen neue Straßen neue Perspektiven. Hessler pendelt regelmäßig zu einem abgelegenen Dorf bei Peking, das ihm zur zweiten Heimat wird. Hier erlebt er hautnah die Probleme und Möglichkeiten, die die beginnende touristische Erschließung mit sich bringt. Zudem schildert er am Beispiel einer Fabrik im Südosten Chinas, wie der Bau einer Autobahn eine ganze Region in kürzester Zeit verändert. Die Hoffnungen, Enttäuschungen und der gnadenlose Konkurrenzkampf, die mit dem chinesischen „Wirtschaftswunder“ einhergehen, werden sichtbar. Hessler bietet einen unmittelbaren, atmosphärisch dichten Einblick in das heutige China und erzählt mit Gespür für Gesten und Zwischentöne von seinen Begegnungen mit unterschiedlichsten Menschen, die alle auf ihre Weise „unterwegs“ sind.

Binnen kurzer Zeit ist China zur neuen Wirtschafts- und Weltmacht aufgestiegen, die die internationalen Börsen schon mal erzittern lässt. Doch wie kam es dazu? Hautnah erlebte der Journalist und Auslandskorrespondent Peter Hess ler die Zeit der großen Reformen: den wirtschaftlichen, gesellschaftlichen und kulturellen Umbruch, die millionenfache Migration vom Land in die neuen Megaci ties an den Küsten, die Zersetzung einer von uralten Traditionen geprägten Kultur. Hessler erzählt das Geschehen aus der Perspektive der Betroffenen. In den literarischen Bericht seines Reporterlebens, seiner Reisen und seiner Begegnungen mischt er auch einige Exkursionen in die reiche chinesische Geschichte, darunter zu den Orakelknochen, den ältesten Funden chinesischer Schriftzeichen. Sie waren in Knochen oder Schildkrötenpanzer eingraviert und hielten rätselhafte Weissagungen und Prophezeiungen für die Herrscher bereit ...

Drawn by an abiding fascination with Egypt's rich history and civilization, Peter Hessler moved with his wife and twin daughters to Cairo to explore a place that had a powerful hold over his imagination. He wanted to learn Arabic, explore Cairo's neighborhoods, research ancient history, and visit the legendary archaeological digs. After years of covering China for "The New Yorker," friends warned him it would be a much quieter place. But just before his arrival, the Arab Spring had reached Egypt and the country was in chaos. In the midst of the revolution, he attached himself to an important archaeological dig at a site rich in royal tombs known in as al-Madfuna, or "The Buried." He and his wife set out to master Arabic, striking up an important friendship with their language instructor, a cynical political sophisticate named Rifaat. And a very different kind of friendship was formed with their garbage collector, an illiterate neighborhood character named Saaed, whose access to the trash of Cairo would be its own kind of archaeological excavation. Along the way, he meets a family of Chinese small business owners who have cornered the nation's lingerie trade; their pragmatic view of the political crisis is a bracing counterpoint to the West's conventional wisdom. Through the lives of these and other ordinary people in a time of tragedy and heartache, and through connections between contemporary Egypt and its ancient past, Hessler creates an astonishing portrait of a country and its people. What emerges is a book of uncompromising intelligence and humanity -- the story of a land in which a weak state has collapsed but its underlying society remains in many ways painfully the same

When Peter Hessler went to China in the late 1990s, he expected to spend a couple of peaceful years teaching English in the town of Fuling on the Yangtze River. But what he experienced - the natural beauty, cultural tension, and complex process of understanding that takes place when one is thrust into a radically different society - surpassed anything he could have imagined. Hessler observes firsthand how major events such as the death of Deng Xiaoping, the return of Hong Kong to the mainland, and the controversial consturction of the Three Gorges Dam have affected even the people of a remote town like Fuling. Poignant, thoughtful and utterly compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a place caught mid-river in time, much like China itself - a country seeking to understand both what it was and what it will one day become.

A century ago, outsiders saw China as a place where nothing ever changes. Today the country has become one of the most dynamic regions on earth. In Oracle Bones, Peter Hessler explores the human side of China's transformation, viewing modern-day China and its growing links to the Western world through the lives of a handful of ordinary people. In a narrative that gracefully moves between the ancient and the present, the East and the West, Hessler captures the soul of a country that is undergoing a momentous change before our eyes.

Full of unforgettable figures and an unrelenting spirit of adventure, Strange Stones is a far-ranging, thought-provoking collection of Peter Hessler’s best reportage—a dazzling display of the powerful storytelling, shrewd cultural insight, and warm sense of humor that are the trademarks of his work. Over the last decade, as a staff writer for The New Yorker and the author of three books, Peter Hessler has lived in Asia and the United States, writing as both native and knowledgeable outsider in these two very different regions. This unusual perspective distinguishes Strange Stones, which showcases Hessler’s unmatched range as a storyteller. “Wild Flavor” invites readers along on a taste test between two rat restaurants in South China. One story profiles Yao Ming, basketball star and China’s most beloved export, another David Spindler, an obsessive and passionate historian of the Great Wall. In “Dr. Don,” Hessler writes movingly about a small-town pharmacist and his relationship with the people he serves. While Hessler’s subjects and locations vary, subtle but deeply important thematic links bind these pieces—the strength of local traditions, the surprising overlap between apparently opposing cultures, and the powerful lessons drawn from individuals who straddle different worlds.

This intimate eyewitness account explores the experiences of two generations of students in China's heartland, revealing how the country's education system reflects its tumultuous changes. Through personal narratives, the book delves into the challenges and transformations faced by students, offering a unique perspective on the broader societal shifts occurring in China.

This introductory management text distills core management topics into 13 user-friendly chapters. Content is augmented by experiential exercises (one per chapter) and "in-basket" exercises.

This book coins the term “Networked Public” to describe the active social actors in new media ecology. The author argues that, in today’s network society, Networked Public Communication is different than, yet has similarities with, mass communication and interpersonal communication. As such it is the emergent paradigm for research. The book reviews the historical, technological and social context for the rising of Networked Public, analyzes its constituents and characteristics, and discusses the categories and features of social media in China. By analyzing abundant cases from recent years, the book provides answers to the key questions at micro, meso and macro-levels, including how information flows under regulation in the process of Networked Public Communication; what its features and models are; what collective action strategies and“resistance culture”have been developed as a result of Internet regulate; the nature of power games among Networked Public, mass media, political forces and capital, and the links with the development of Chinese civil society.