My daughter, a Chinese scholar, gave me this book for my birthday. I looked forward to learning more about the oracle bones, the inscribed turtle shells and ox scapulae from the late Shang dynasty, whose inscriptions have transformed our understanding of early Chinese history. I expected a history of the archaeology and scholarship surrounding those remarkable artifacts.
The book is something quite different. Hessler uses the oracle bones as a thread connecting a memoir of his years as a journalist in China with the country's rapid transformation after the Cultural Revolution. He weaves together his own experiences, the lives of Chinese friends and students, the stories of emigrants, and the history of the archaeologists who deciphered the oracle-bone inscriptions. The result is part travel narrative, part journalism, part history, and part memoir.
I found the modern history particularly interesting. Hessler's eyewitness accounts of a society still emerging from the devastation of the Cultural Revolution, with its 2 million deaths, persecution, destruction of cultural heritage, and profound social upheaval, are often insightful. The archaeological passages also provide fascinating glimpses into the Late Shang world.
Even so, the book never became the history that I had hoped to read. I cared much less about Hessler's personal adventures than about the archaeology and ancient history. Although several anecdotes are poignant and memorable, Hessler's writing style never quite clicked with my taste. I admired the book more than I enjoyed reading it. 2/5 stars.
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