Chapter 2 is preceded by a short interlude about the nature of Chinese history. It seems that the legacy of Emperor Qin's book burning may have been exaggerated as evidenced of inconsistencies about his supposed mandate of standardized written language. History seems to build narratives out of seemingly chaotic events, often at the expense of certain happenings and the unfounded emphasis on others.
Hessler continues with Chapter 2 as an introduction to one of his students while teaching English. The story serves to demonstrate the attitudes of people following the passing of Chairman Mao, growing industrialization and the newfound importance and promise of the English language. Its a firsthand account of some of the promises of industrialization and Westernization left broken (example included the ill-fated venture of a farmer following a boon in pig feed and a teaching opportunity that was far less than advertised). The chapter ends with Willy (the former student) leaving a fraudulent school with his girlfriend for (hopefully) better prospects.
Chapter 3 is a short narrative on the town of Dandong, on the border of North Korea. Accounts of being robbed by a North Korean refugee and the difference between the tourism on Chinese side of a bombed out bridge (the Yalu River Broken Bridge, damaged during the Korean War) and the austere Korean help to flesh out the isolation and poverty of North Korea.
I'm enjoying Hessler's conversational tone and dead-pan sense of humor. The conclusion of the ill-fated robbery provides an example, "people were ashamed that a foreigner had been robbed in their city...it seemed even more shameful that the foreigner had caught the thief." However, chapters tends to be a little unfocused. This chapter opens with an encounter regarding the the commemoration of the pro-democracy Tiananmen Square demonstrations and then abruptly transitions into North Korea.
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