The materials obtained from oral history are precious materials that are hard to find in official documents, such as personal experiences during the war, immigration history of individuals or families, ethical relations of relatives, and the development of personal career. By collecting personal career and family history, historians and social researchers can reconstruct different aspects of historical development, such as class formation, immigration and migration, social mobility and historical scars.
Another precious thing about oral history is that it records the voices, words and thoughts of the interviewees when they tell stories. By analyzing language, tone and the speaker's subjective meaning, researchers can capture the social significance behind historical events and the positive or negative impact of events on people.
Based on these characteristics, oral history just fills the deficiency of statistics and quantitative investigation, enabling us to master materials other than quantitative data and appreciate human nature and dynamics outside the cold system and structure. Oral stories from leaders, ordinary people and ethnic minorities can broaden the horizons of historians and researchers, open up new research fields and inspire them to restate the history of a society from a new angle.