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Oracle Bones: A Journey Between China's Past and Present By Peter Hessler. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 2006. 514 pp. $26.95 hardcover.
Imagine yourself standing in the nooks and crannies of Beijing's ancient hutongs, or alleyways, with your moleskin pad, chronicling daily life as it unfolded before you for five years. Undoubtedly, you would meet unusual characters that provide lively anecdotes about scenes of Chinese life. Peter Hessler, the Beijing correspondent for the New Yorker, has managed to do just that in gathering a compendium of compelling humaninterest stories from China into his book Oracle Bones.
Partly mystical, partly political, and always for divination, oracle bones are turtle shells that are emblematic of ancient China and that were used during rituals to predict the future. The use of these bones in China ceased more than two millennia ago, but the title of the book suggests that Oracle Bones may well be Hessler's vision of China's present and future:...