From the acclaimed author of River Town comes a rare portrait, both intimate and epic, of twenty-first-century China as it opens its doors to the outside world.

A century ago, outsiders saw Chinaas a place where nothing ever changes. Today the coun-try has become one of the most dynamic regions on earth. That sense of time—the contrast between past and present, and the rhythms that emerge in a vast, ever-evolving country—is brilliantly illuminated by Peter Hessler in Oracle Bones, a book that explores the human side of China's transformation.

Hessler tells the story of modern-day China and its growing links to the Western world as seen through the lives of a handful of ordinary people. In addition to the author, an American writer living in Beijing, the narrative follows Polat, a member of a forgotten ethnic minority, who moves to the United States in searchof freedom; William Jefferson Foster, who grew up in an illiterate family and becomes a teacher; Emily,a migrant factory worker in a city without a past; and Chen Mengjia, a scholar of oracle-bone inscriptions, the earliest known writing in East Asia, and a man whosetragic story has been lost since the Cultural Revolution. All are migrants, emigrants, or wanderers who find themselves far from home, their lives dramatically changed by historical forces they are struggling to understand.

Peter Hessler excavates the past and puts a remarkable human face on the history he uncovers. 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.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 40 reviews)

Reflections on Oracle Bones

Oracle Bones is a collage about China, spanning from the beginning of Chinese written words carved on turtle shells during Shang more than three thousand years ago, to contemporary China when a generation of young men and women left their rural homes to find work in the manufacturing centers such as Shenzhen on the southern coast. Between this long span of time, many seemingly unrelated histories are told, woven together like tapestries. There are stories of archaeologists who dedicated their lives to the study of oracle bones and many of them unfortunately met a tragic fate during the Cultural Revolution.

As if he was only a passive bystander, Hessler reported without his own comments his daily observations as events unfolded around him. We get to know many of his former students who corresponded with him and shared with him their struggles and hardships in capitalistic centers of this communistic country. We also become intimately involved with a Uighur man with whom Hessler shared an occasional meal and beer in a Muslim corner in Beijing. We read how the government controlled its media with an iron fist, and how foreign correspondents played their cat and mouse games. At the time of Hessler's writing, Beijing was gearing up for the 2008 Summer Olympic and many traditional buildings called Hutongs were demolished to give way to new constructions. Buried under new buildings were plenty of untold tragedies and lost memories. Jiade (fake) became a part of people's daily language, as truth and myth, real and fake, authentic and imitation mixed inexorably in a society that was bordering on paranoia. Even the government's overtly harsh suppression of Falun Gong after its followers' street demonstration indicated a heightened insecurity and anxiety which spun this intricate web that is modern China.

Actually, a major thread that runs through all these seemingly unrelated stories might be found in a statement made by Imre Galambos and quoted early on in the book. This scholar of ancient Chinese at the University California at Berkeley said: "In order to write a story, and create meaning out of events, you deny other possible interpretations. The history of China, like the history of any great culture, was written at the expense of other stories that have remained silent." "Stories that are too neat and regular are often a façade for chaos. A story that is written often obliterates many other likely stories."

Chinese written words have a square appearance, starting from the original words carved on the oracle bones. For example, the word for city was written as a large and enclosed square box , as if to say: "Keep our people in this structure, enclose it with square walls, and keep the barbarians out." The great Imperial Palace of Beijing was built exactly on this regular, symmetrical, square and walled-in principle. In fact, regularity, order, and organization seem to apply not only to Chinese words and buildings but also to the historical, social and cultural traditions of the people.

Chinese written words unite Chinese peoples, and with which Chinese history was recorded through various dynasties. One might say that Chinese written words are the soul of Chinese culture. Chinese history is linear and official where good and bad, right and wrong are clearly defined. Although there is something called wild history which circulated among common folks and was often a mixture of unofficial history, rumor and myth, it was deemed by scholars as irregular and should be banned. Chinese have long learned that the great Chinese culture developed along the Yellow River valley, the so-called cradle of Chinese civilization. However, there are current archeological studies in Sichuan basin which indicate that there might be other original civilizations, such as the southern culture where rice was first cultivated.

Is it possible that when one relies on a regular, orderly and organized way to interpret the world and events, other possible stories are pushed into oblivion, and other voices are being silenced? Could it be that the present regime of China continues to function within this regular, orderly and organized square box, that events which do not fit neatly into this box become too frightening, confusing and have to be denied? Is this the reason the current government often becomes brutal and ineffectual when dealing with issues of diversity, whether it is ethnic minority (e.g., Tibetan and Uighur), religious diversity (e.g., Falun Gong), political dissension (e.g., democratic movement and human rights) and sexual orientation (e.g., homosexual and trans-sexual)?

Hessler never asked these questions directly and openly. As a sensitive and thoughtful writer, he only painted dots for us to connect.

January 06, 2009

I liked it

I will keep this short and sweet. I had the great fortune to read this book while in Beijing. I competed in the Paralympics there and I have travelled the world. Reading this book while actually there made my trip more interesting. I read some reviews that said they did not like how this book jumped around, I understand what they mean but I found the book still very engaging. I look forward to reading his other book about China.
September 21, 2008

A Journey Through Today's China

Oracle Bones is a tale of one Mandarin-speaking American's adventures in modern-day China. From befriending a Uyghur trader in Beijing that immigrated to the United States to staying in touch with his former students from Fuling (introduced in Hessler's book River Town) this book showcases China in a way that few foreigners get to understand. Hessler is a strong storyteller and writer which is what kept me coming back to the book day after day to continue his journey. While the underlying theme seemed to be the Chinese language and its origins and changes over the turbulent Mao years, the book contains some great chapters on Beijing's preparation for the IOC visit (of particular interest now that the 2008 Summer Games are successfully unfolding) to the history of the Kuomintang and its exile to Taiwan. All in all, this book is worthy of its awards and should be read by anyone with an interest in China's past and present.
August 22, 2008

great book

Like Peter Hessler's other book, this is a great book about China. I have lived in and visited China many times and always find a lot that I can identify with in his books.
July 19, 2008

A pleasant miscellany of Chinese scenes

I enjoyed Hessler's book very much. I must admit that I'd never heard of him before, and bought the book because it was one of the few titles on China available on the Amazon Kindle in November of last year. As a student of China with a great interest in the oracle bones of the book's title I found the sections on the great oracle bones scholar Chen Meng Jia very engaging, and in fact bought the textbook of Jia Gu Wen that he mentioned (my Chinese isn't up to reading it yet, but in a few years perhaps!).

The author's interaction with an Uyghur merchant was also very enlightening, especially considering how the conflict between the Uyghurs and Han Chinese has been heating up quite a bit of late.

Overall I found the book both enjoyable to read and useful to a student of modern China. His connections with people all over China made me feel like I am more connected to the real China of today.
March 11, 2008

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