Part 1. Rejection -- The old campus -- The new campus -- Chengdu experimental -- Earthquake -- Part 2. The city suspended -- Children of the Corona -- The sealed city -- Involution -- Common sense -- Generation Xi -- Epilogue: The Uncompahgre River

"More than two decades after teaching English during the early part of China's economic boom, an experience chronicled in his book River Town, Peter Hessler returned to Sichuan province to instruct students from the next generation. At the same time, Hessler and his wife enrolled their twin daughters in a local state-run elementary school, where they were the only Westerners. Over the years, Hessler had kept in close contact with many of the people he had taught in the 1990s. By reconnecting with these individuals-members of China's "Reform generation," now in their forties-while teaching current undergrads, Hessler gained a unique perspective on China's incredible transformation. In Peter Hessler's hands, China's education system is the perfect vehicle for examining the country's past, present, and future, and what we can learn from it, for good and ill"--