Depth of characters

Oracle bone character

Since oracle bone characters are among the world's earliest examples of a written language system and are the roots of Chinese culture and its characters, Sears has devoted much of his effort to studying them.

Qian Ling, deputy curator of Tianjin Museum, revealed some of the history of oracle bone studies in Tianjin during a dialogue with Sears.

"It was widely known that the oracle bones were unearthed in Central China's Henan province, but few people knew that the first researcher who discovered the value of the oracle bones was Wang Xiang from Tianjin," she says.

Sears noted the bones' connection with Tianjin through its research heritage is hardly a coincidence, because the city's rich history and rapid commercial development in the early 20th century laid the foundation for that research.

Qian said the world's archaeology and character research circles have shown an increasing interest in the oracle bone characters and Sears is a prime example.