[fspeech]

The author grew up in a major city (Chongqing) before emigrating to the US but her dad grew up in a small village and she had some experience staying with relatives there. I felt that the writing is somewhat stilted as well even though I appreciate the efforts she made to tell the stories. She became a staff writer in 2016 so maybe she is still developing her own style. I highly enjoyed Peter Hessler's pieces covering China for the New Yorker.