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Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present (精装)
by Peter Hessler
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AllReviews |
1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
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Publishers Weekly, USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
Starred Review. Hessler, who first wrote about China in his 2001 bestseller, River Town, a portrait of his Peace Corps years in Fuling, continues his conflicted affair with that complex country in a second book that reflects the maturity of time and experience. Having lived in China for a decade now, fluent in Mandarin and working as a correspondent in Beijing, Hessler displays impressive knowledge, research and personal encounters as he brings the country's peoples, foibles and history into sharp focus. He frames his narrative with short chapters about Chinese artifacts: the underground city being excavated at Anyang; the oracle bones of the title ("inscriptions on shell and bone" considered the earliest known writing in East Asia); and he pays particular attention to how language affects culture, often using Chinese characters and symbols to make a point.A talented writer and journalist, Hessler has courage - he's undercover at the Falun Gong demonstrations in Tiananmen Square and in the middle of anti-American protests in Nanjing after the Chinese embassy bombings in Belgrade - and a sense of humor (the Nanjing rioters attack a statue of Ronald McDonald since Nanjing has no embassies). The tales of his Fuling students' adventures in the new China's boom towns; the Uighur trader, an ethnic minority from China's western border, who gets asylum after entering the U.S. with jiade (false) documents; the oracle bones scholar Chen Mengjia, who committed suicide during the Cultural Revolution - all add a seductive element of human interest.There's little information available in China, we learn, but Hessler gets the stories that no one talks about and delivers them in a personal study that informs, entertains and mesmerizes. Everyone in the Western world should read this book. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Bookmarks Magazine, USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
Hessler, Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker, freelance journalist, and the author of River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze (2001), a memoir of his experiences as an English teacher for the Peace Corps in China's Sichuan Province, describes a world closed to most Westerners. The writing is smart and engaging, and Hessler uses an archaeological framework (chapters on the past, for instance, are deemed "Artifacts") to organize his narrative, a hook that reminds the reader always of the past's influence on the present. The reconciliation between old and new will likely never be absolute. Critics agree, however, that Hessler skillfully interweaves the two temporal threads to create a portrait of a China struggling to define itself in the global community.<BR>Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc.
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Booklist , USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
Hessler, who has lived in China for the past nine years and is the Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker, has written a fascinating and frequently moving account of life in modern China as seen through the eyes of an eclectic group of people, including a minority Uighur, who operates on the fringe of legality, a factory worker, a teacher, a film director, and a scholar who was destroyed by the Cultural Revolution. All of them seem to function as outsiders as they struggle to cope with a nation that is undergoing monumental change. Hessler seamlessly interweaves their stories with the broader context of Chinese contemporary events, and he ties those events effectively with examinations of history, archaeological excavations, and the Chinese struggle to redefine national identity. This is an important and informative work offering a unique perspective on where China may be headed. Jay Freeman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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David Stockelberg (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
This is an excellent book both in regard to content and form.
The author really knows how to capture the reader even though he is not writing pure fiction, but rather a documentary textbook. He does that not only by mastering the english language well, but also by giving us insights to real lifes and histories of modern China, based on others and his own firsthand experiences. |
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Jennifer (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
Peter Hessler, The New Yorker's Beijing correspondent and the first foreign journalist to report from China since before the Communist Revolution, uses the excavation of China's earliest written language as a symbol for understanding modern-day China by unearthing and interpreting the lives of individuals - from Polat, a Uighar immigrant to the United States, to Emily, an idealistic young factory worker in the industrial town of Shenzhen, where products are cheaply manufactured for export to the capitalist West. Hessler's wit and compassion makes this a must-read for understanding the nation slated to replace the United States as the world's next superpower. |
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Craig C. Tafel (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, though in a different way than River Town. Hessler's approach to finding stories from Fuling is taken to a larger scale - the whole of China - and his ability to capture the essence of this journey does not suffer for it.
In Oracle Bones Hessler shares with us a view of China rarely reported on television outside of the People's Republic: its people. Western media tend to focus on the same themes over and over again: the booming economy, military threats, the corruption, the "Big Guys" in Beijing, communism, cheap labor, American jobs lost, human rights, one-child policy, and so on. Stories that do focus on people tend to serve political purposes: the dissidents, the disgruntled factory workers, the awkward half-truths of leaders.
This book allows readers a glimpse at the "real China"-the average Zhou's combination of toughness, pragmatism, insecurity, frustration, and optimism that guide day-to-day interactions in China. I've been fortunate enough to have lived in China for the past five years, and the stories he shares ring very true. He has done an excellent job of bringing the lives of ordinary people into focus for folks not able to experience it themselves.
Hessler has changed - heck, CHINA has changed in the years since the events in the book took place - and he does a great job of framing his work as a series of short insights into the lives of the folks living their lives in a fascinating place.
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Robin C. Ryan (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
Hessler's follow-up to his enchanting 'River Town' is far more immersed in history and sociology than its younger brother. Through the witty structure that intersperses the ancient with the modern, like China itself, Hessler is able to speak on every issue from the formation of the ancient Chinese writing system to the asian-food deliveries of his comrade, Polat.
Without a doubt, Hessler's writing has improved since 'River Town'. This is a book that constantly glances over its shoulder into the past, consulting with aging scholars and the dead, and Hessler manages this with constant refrains that charm the reader as much as they remind him of the greater context of the story.
For any student who wants a healthy overview of modern China, from the macro to the micro, 'Oracle Bones' is an excellent starting choice. |
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Randi (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
Oracle Bones is a compelling novel with two major threads; the current exodus of young Chinese from the country into industrial/population centers and much of the history responsible for shaping current conditions and culture. Peter Hessler's writing style draws you into China and challenges you to learn more. He writes from the gut and bars no holds. The characters he weaves into both the modern and historical threads are genuine and intriquing. Hessler incorporates very recent American Government contact and influence into the story which explains much of the views held by Chinese citizens. Being that we are still under the same administration described toward the end of the book, it is all the more interesting and somewhat frightening. China will be A, if not THE major player in the world ecomomy and this book should be required reading for anyone who wants to keep up. |
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Pupucat (MSL quote), USA
<2008-01-08 00:00>
I wish I could give this book 10 stars instead of 5. What an awesome follow up to his first book, River Town!!! Having been a teacher in China, done business there and lived in China for as long as Hessler did, I can say that this book is the best I've read (and I've read a lot on China) on contemporary China - he really catches both the real China and what it is like to be a foreigner in China and the reverse culture shock one feels when coming back to America post- 9/11 (feeling like there is a 'hole in my nation's history' and how the more similar China and America were becoming with their double speak - 'Motherland' and 'Homeland'). I kept on saying to myself as I did when I read 'River Town' that this is EXACLTY what I experienced (the special English, living in China during the Belgrade bombing) or this is exactly what my students or my friends said or felt (their feelings about 9/11 or their reluctance in talking about the past and their focus on the future).
He also did a great job of putting his true feelings into the book ( and with humor)- the love/hate relationship towards China, the fascinationn and at the same time the frustration towards the place and the people. It makes me want to go back there and live once again with it's warts and all.
I think that those who just read some of the negative reviews on this site and not buy the book because of them will be missing out on a lot. Maybe for some the book is too negative or doesn't paint the romantic picture people imagine of China or doesn't portray Chinese as communist hating people who are constantly trying to overthrow their government. But it portrays the true China and the true experience of living in such a constantly changing place. And he does it with humor and irony. |
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1 Total 1 pages 9 items |
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