'Oracle Bones' and Sinophiles

For some time, I have resisted the urge to make this a China blog. My life has progressed to the point, however, at which this blog could only escape Chinese domination by ceasing to be mine. And since no one else is volunteering to write it, I hope that any readers I have left are interested in the Far East... :-)
This weekend I read Peter Hessler's book 'Oracle Bones', which is intended to capture China's transition into a 'modern society'. Hessler, a St. Louis native, spent two years teaching English in Sichuan province through the Peace Corps, then went on to live and work in China as a student, journalist, and (occasionally) not-exactly-legal tourist.
'Oracle Bones' follows multiple different story threads, but the balance is exquisitely delicate and Hessler succeeds in creating a unified tapestry of life in China today. Some figures which stand out are:

Polat: A middle-aged Uighur man who leaves his native Xinjiang due to political pressure and becomes a black market trader in Beijing. Hessler documents Polat's life in the Beijing underground, and transition to the United States as a refugee, while telling the greater story of the Uighur people, and other threatened ethnic groups who consider themselves 'in but not of' China.

William Jefferson Foster (English name): A fiercely enthusiastic young English student who, with his girlfriend, Nancy, leaves Sichuan to become a migrant worker in a wealthier province. Willy's coarse sense of humor is not entirely palatable, but his intelligence and raw passion for knowledge are both haunting and appealing. Willy and Nancy's story was one of my favorite threads in the book. This excerpt is an example:

"She [Nancy] tried to be patient with his obsessions. Earlier that year, Wenzhou television had started broadcasting China Central Television's Channel Nine, which is in English. Every night, Willy stayed up late, glued to the television, writing down new words. Nancy's sleep deteriorated into a haze of flickering light and Special English [simplified English], and then, just when she thought they might need another room, the broadcasts stopped.

For a few days, Willy assumed that there was a technical problem. After a week he telephoned the Yueqing Broadcasting and Television Bureau, whose representatives told him that Channel Nine had been canceled because of a lack of local interest. After another week, Willy began calling and impersonating a Beijing accent. He claimed that he worked for an international trade company whose foreign representatives often traveled to Yueqing, where they had been deeply disappointed to find no more of Channel Nine. The foreigners, who were investing heavily in Yueqing, would be thrilled to see Channel Nine again. For weeks, Willy waited hopefully- nothing. If Nancy was relieved, she was tactful enough to keep it to herself." (Hessler, 316)

Emily: Like Willy, Emily is one of Hessler's former English students. She too leaves Sichuan to work in another province, in this case, at a factory. A bright and creatively independent thinker, Emily is tormented by depression and a sense of emptiness, feeling a constant vague dissatisfaction with her life. She is disillusioned by the corruption and falsehood that surround her at school and the factory, and with the deceptive political system. In one letter she writes,
"I hate political cant because I used to believe in it.", and goes on to describe the grief of her father who came to realize the unreliability of his adored leaders only as an old man.
She maintains a special friendship with her former teacher, but is haunted by a sense of unsatisfied longings, telling him,

"Your appearance lightened up my college life. It's you that let me know that a teacher could get along with his students that way. You never know how much fun I took in reading your feedback in my journal book. It could ease my worries and make me think. I always enjoy talking with you, you are the one who knows my everything... But everytime you went back to Beijing, I felt the panic of hollowness. As if I had given everything out but gotten nothing in return." (Hessler, 424)

Emily's phrase '...the panic of hollowness...' will stay with me for a long time. I hope to leave my students one day with true peace and fulfillment, not simply an empty, temporary comfort.

Chen Menjia: The pre-eminent scholar and archaeologist involved in the study of oracle bones, bronzes, etc... from the Shang and Zhou dynasties. His tragic suicide during the Cultural Revolution continues to echo throughout archaeology and academia in China, profoundly impacting many students and researchers of his generation.

Jiang Wen: A controversial and flamboyant film maker whose WWII movie 'Devils on the Doorstep' was celebrated at the Cannes festival, but banned in China. Jiang Wen has much interesting commentary on life and art in China, but one thing he said stood out to me particularly:

"In the distant past, the country was peaceful and stable, but now it changes so fast. Certainly that's been the case since Reform and Opening, but to some degree the past two hundred years have been like that. We don't know where we are. We haven't found our road. In the early part of the twentieth century, the Chinese tried; some of them tried to find it in our own traditions, while others looked outside the country. This debate is still going on. Chairman Mao is a perfect example. He often said that he didn't like Chinese history, and the Communists initially succeeded because they were untraditional. But Mao used traditional Chinese language to oppose the old things, and he became a traditional emperor. It's not as if he decided to do this, he just didn't know any other alternatives. He's a tragic figure- the most tragic in Chinese history. He's like a seed that grows big, but in a twiste way, because the seed can't overcome the soil... I want to make a movie about Mao. Mao was more tragic than Hamlet. Mao was an artistic person, not a political person. He should have been a poet and a philosopher; he should have been creating things instead of dealing with politics... I think Mao has something to do with every Chinese person. He represents many Chinese dreams and many Chinese tragedies." (Hessler,349)


Throughout these discussions about the sense of confusion and disconnect felt by many Chinese young people, I'm reminded of Guobin Yang's assertion in 'The Power of the Internet in China' that, "Change is the cause of today's identity crisis, not the basis of hope." (Yang, 37) The generations following the revolution, while disillusioned by communism/authoritarianism, have found no adequate replacement, only new fads to dabble in. One Chinese professor I know says that the high-school and college students in China today seem completely foreign to him; their behavior and culture is unfamiliar, and even their appearance and style are confusing. He suggests, (in what, coming from a Chinese person, is almost certainly not a compliment) that, "They don't really seem like Chinese to me. Maybe they are like Japanese instead."

To conclude, if you would like to know more about China, or the world in general, I recommend this book highly. One thing I especially enjoyed about 'Oracle Bones' was the emphasis placed on ordinary people and everyday life. I felt like my understanding of Chinese culture and history was deepened considerably. Some points of interest for American readers might be:

1. The description of experiencing the aftermath of 9/11 in China, and of the reactions of Chinese citizens.
2. Frequent allusions to Chines perceptions of American people, government, and foreign policy.

A note to the concerned: This is the first of an interminable series of China book reviews, and other Asian musings. This semester I will be continuing to work through the reading list I started on last year, and as I'm now bursting with information, ideas, and sweet quotes, this hijacking of my blog is a necessary step towards the preservation of sanity. You haven't seen the last of Hessler; I picked up his first book, 'River Town' at the library this afternoon. ;-)