Oracle

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, Oracle Bones: A Journey Through Time In China, Country Driving: A Journey Through China from Farm to Factory, Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West

◎ "Time Magazine" Best Book Award
◎ Nominated for "National Book Award" for Nonfiction in the United States
◎ "New York Times", "Washington Post", "Christian Science Monitor" Annual Best Books

"Oracle Bones" is Peter Hessler's non-fiction classic, written over ten years of exploring China, documenting the dramatic changes in China in the 1990s. In 1996, he came to Fuling, Sichuan, as a Peace Corps member to teach. He later became The New Yorker's Beijing correspondent and completed this book in an apartment in an unmarked alley in Beijing.

In the book, Hessler not only records his personal observations but also traces hundreds of years of historical footprints, from the bronze wares of Yin Xu and the masks of Sanxingdui to the tragedy of ancient script scholar Chen Mengjia; from the reform of Chinese character romanization to the debate between traditional and simplified Chinese, intertwining historical China with contemporary China. Hessler's journey to China is not only on a realistic level but also on historical and metaphorical levels. The two proceed concurrently, intertwining into cracks like those on a tortoise shell.

The reform and opening up allowed Chinese people to migrate freely for the first time. Hessler met marginalized groups who originally "had no history," such as a North Korean defector who stole his wallet by the Yalu River on the China-Korea border, Uighur intellectuals who混迹于 Beijing's black market, director Jiang Wen filming "Devils on the Doorstep" in Xinjiang, and Sichuanese girls who traveled to Shenzhen for work. He also describes the "hide-and-seek" between Falun Gong practitioners and police in Tiananmen Square, and the scene of Taiwan's election and Chen Wen-hsien.

These stories span Beijing, Henan, Northeast China, Xinjiang, Wenzhou, Shenzhen, and even Taiwan, presenting a picture of China that is both fascinating and lost, full of hope amidst chaos. Hessler is both an observer and a friend, sincerely interacting with farmers, female workers, small business owners, and vendors, eschewing a sensationalist perspective, allowing readers to see a real and humane China - a China more real than reality itself.

2020-04-15

八旗文化

184

9789578654990