Monday, February 13, 2012

今日的聯合早報


長野山上的21公克

誰不知道都市人戀物。但是,那名模樣四十多歲的日本女人開對她的玩具貓說話時,仍舊嚇了我一跳。

不在青山靜謐巷內的咖啡館,也不是人潮洶湧的渋谷八公銅像前,而身處長野深山一處幽靜谷地,溪流潺潺,高山聳立,周圍寂靜,每根樹木都在午寐,偶有零星鳥鳴,和楓葉慵懶打呼的聲音。女人顯然從都市過來,縱使深林山野,腳上仍是一雙全包腳粗高跟鞋,低腰復古印花洋裝外披人造皮毛,染成茶色的短卷髮上戴了一頂可愛小圓帽,帽緣夾著兩根紫羽毛,好像直接從新宿街頭搭乘時空機器以原子形式瞬間傳輸過來,待會兒還要趕回去看晚場電影。她與她的女伴找了張專供遊客使用的長椅,先瞇起眼睛好好把景色端詳了一圈,溫柔輕聲讚嘆,露出滿足微笑,然後打開足以裝下保齡球的隨身手袋,拿出午餐需要的茶水保溫瓶、三明治,幾顆橘子,接著各自抱出一隻填塞玩偶,一隻是人類嬰兒般大小的凱蒂貓,另一隻是常見孩童抱著入睡的熊寶寶。

她們謹慎地讓玩具寵物靠著自己身子坐穩,因為怕髒,細心在它們屁股底下鋪了手帕, 拍拍它們的頭,似乎在安撫它們,鼓勵它們認識大自然。就像兩個帶孩子出遊的母親,在安頓好孩子之後,開始閒話家常,拆開三明治包裝吃了起來,此時,女人忽然蹙緊眉頭,放下她咬了兩口的三明治,憂心忡忡抱起之前都乖乖坐她身旁的凱蒂貓,像母親檢視嬰兒是否餓了還是尿布濕了那般關,她就那麼自然對著頭紮紅色蝴蝶結的凱蒂貓說起話來了。

怎麼不高興啦,這裡不是很美麗嗎,妳覺得冷嗎,我幫妳帶了條毯子。她正要動手去取毯子又停下。不冷,還是餓了,要吃三明治嗎。她把三明治湊到凱蒂貓臉前又拿開。什麼,妳肚子疼,因為早上喝的牛奶不新鮮嗎,可是我前天下班才買的呀。

她把凱蒂貓上上下下仔細觀察了一輪,連她的朋友也開口關心了,怎麼,凱蒂在不高興什麼。她抬頭對朋友露出燦爛微笑,緊緊把凱蒂抱在懷裡,劈哩啪啦對朋友說起話來了。

凱蒂貓沒有嘴巴。凱蒂的媽媽大概忘記了。

我想起是枝裕和的電影《空氣人形》,獨居都市的男人寂寞到不行,從人偶工廠訂購了一個真人大小的充氣娃娃,每天夜裡用嘴把她吹漲起來,把她當做真正的妻子,跟她抱怨辦公室人事,向她撒嬌,爬到她身上對她做愛,抱她入眠,隔天上班前叫她好好待在家裡等他回來。故事裡,男人是那個孤獨如此巨大的可憐靈魂,直到有天他興奮抱著新版充氣娃娃回家,把舊充氣娃娃當做淘汰了的老手機塞到雜物箱深處。

而他每天祈禱希望有真實體溫的充氣娃娃終於變成活生生的女子,有血有肉站在他面前時,質疑他為何如此喜新厭舊,對愛情不忠貞,他的反應竟是像見了陰森厲鬼般驚慌,滔滔強辯起自己的背叛

戀物就像反反覆覆的感情遊戲。一會兒愛,一會兒就不愛了。愛的時候很痴迷,誰不認同這份愛,就要跟誰去拼命。不愛的時侯,就徹底遺忘,人提醒還會惱羞成怒,極力否認曾經的迷戀,駁斥不過當時稍微碰了流行,從來也不曾認真過。

這讓我想起石黑一雄的小說《別讓我走》(Never Let Me Go),古色古香的校園其實是複製人養殖場,這些孩子對外頭社會來說只是「物」。長大成人之後,他們的器官將如樹上果實成熟般供人摘取,去延長其他人類的生命。他們以為只要展示自己的靈魂長相,證明自己也能像正常人一樣真心相愛,就能為自己以及所愛的人多爭取一點相處的時間,卻得到「我們不是探究你們的靈魂,而是探究你們是否真有靈魂」的答案。

靈魂成為區分生命與非生命的關鍵字。人類如此堅持靈魂的重要性,美國麻州一名醫生甚至進行醫學實驗,發現一般病人斷氣之際會突然少了21.3公克,他因此認為自己測出了靈魂的重量。關鍵的21公克,相當於一條巧克力的重量,決定生命的尊嚴。凱蒂貓有21公克,沒嘴巴也有牛奶喝。沒有21公克,你只是個隨時都能拋棄的玩物。

遠在城市建造之前,成天跟大自然搏鬥的人類祖先相信天地萬物皆有靈魂。一塊石頭也有,它只是決定不跟你說話而已。後來,城裡日子過得舒服了,我們都變成美國動畫片《玩具總動員》的那些小孩,只顧快樂餵養自己的靈魂,卻看不見其餘事物的21公克。有意無意之間,也輕忽了在我們周遭呼吸走動的其他21公克。

東京世田谷有座貓寺,專門供奉招財貓。但,人們的愛貓死了,也會去那裡上香,祈禱寵物的靈魂上天堂。法國導演克里斯馬克起初覺得不可思議,如同我目睹那個女人在長野山上對她的凱蒂貓說話的那一刻。但當他聽見日本婦人來祭拜,對她走失已久不知淪落何方的愛貓說,親愛的妳,無論妳在那裡,是死是活,我都希望妳能夠得到生命的平靜。他以為,那真是一個人對自己心愛的(無論是人還是隻貓還是個杯子)所能展現最最最真切的愛情。







忽忽。

忽忽。

其實我跟忽忽有點親。可是那種親法是別人看不見的。意思是我們的聯繫有點像地下水,別人路過只感覺那塊土壤踩起來有點黏濕濕,好像剛下過暴雨,仰頭卻一片晴空,其實那是因為地下深藏一潭湖水。

盛弘跟我去了兩趟淡水忽忽家,嚐她母親的著名廚藝,看她心愛的貓咪。我也私下跟她在台北見面,她一邊吃薯條,一邊聽我嘮叨。

忽忽其實是叛逆小妹,而我從小就老氣橫秋。但因為我碰見忽忽時,她已經先過中年,兩人角色於是逆轉,她在我面前就一副老氣橫秋,我在她面前變成了長不大的叛逆小妹。

因 為我也是她撿去了的貓。我剛上中時部落格,非常不習慣。中時讓我開部落格,其實我有點驚懼。我深怕大眾,覺得自己就是搞不定。果然我一開格,馬上就像上了 硝煙四漫的戰場,子彈橫飛,我身上中了數彈,還搞不清子彈從哪個方向飛來,整個人已經渾身是血地躺下去,還來不及哀鳴。

這時候,忽忽開始給我私人留言。她實在看不下了。她的俠女氣概讓她沒法不搶救一隻在顛峰交通時刻漫步十字路口的笨貓。她給我打氣,叫我冷一點,指點我怎麼回話,寫她讀我文章的心得,跟我說,別擔心,至少有她懂得我在說什麼,不吝教給我她個人的上網心得。

後 來我們真正見了面,人生精采的她花了三小時說她的生平,人生比較不精采的我花了三十分鐘說我的故事,她馬上下了定論,我倆同是天涯淪落姊妹花。我還真的很 同意。雖然我們風格如此不同,文筆更是南轅北轍。我知道忽忽在說什麼。我們都是一意孤行的那種人。明知道有簡單的路可走,但因為個性太好強,終究挑了難走 的道。而且就算辛苦要死,也打死不承認。

忽忽自己如此,卻倒過來勸我。她說,她比我老,所以她不忍心看我這麼犯神經。

忽忽最後一次寫信給我說:「大概我老了,也世故了,懶得理這些人,讓他們笨死好了。

這兩天,一會兒惠妮休斯頓,一會兒鳳飛飛,我自然而然又想起忽忽。想起她無端端照顧我這隻笨貓的情義。

她說,「有些人就是永遠學不乖,就像我們這一種。」

Sunday, February 05, 2012

亞洲華爾街日報對澳門中葡文學節的報導

A group of heavyweights is trying to build something big in Macau, and for once it’s not a casino.
Media magnate Ricardo Pinto is this week launching the Script Road, the former Portuguese colony’s first literary festival, with the help of writers, filmmakers, musicians and artists from China and the Portuguese-speaking world.

The Chinese territory is best known for its casino industry, which is by far the biggest in the world, racking up more than five times the gambling revenue of the Las Vegas Strip last year.

But Mr. Pinto said he hopes the festival, which he intends to make an annual event, will celebrate Macau’s unique role as a cultural crossroads through a series of panels, workshops, film screenings and concerts.

“The idea is there are several ways of writing,” said Mr. Pinto, 49. “You can write for books, films, songs.”
The festival officially started Sunday and runs to Feb. 4, and will feature sessions with authors such as China’s Su Tong, who won the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2009 and whose novella “Wives and Concubines” was turned into Zhang Yimou’s 1991 Oscar-nominated film “Raise the Red Lantern.”

The event will also showcase artists for whom Macau has played an important role, such as Portuguese illustrator André Carrilho. Now a regular contributor to publications such as the New Yorker and Vanity Fair, Mr. Carrilho got his start drawing cartoons for local Portuguese-language newspaper Ponto Final at age 17 after his family moved to Macau.


“People need to stop complaining that Macau has no arts scene and actually do something to change it,” said Mr. Pinto. The Mozambican-born journalist who moved to Macau in 1990 has been leading the way. He publishes Ponto Final and dual English- and Chinese-language magazine Macau Closer, in addition to running bookstore Livraria Portuguesa, organizing cultural events and making documentaries.


He is fighting an uphill battle in a city whose crumbling center, designated a Unesco World Heritage site, is dwarfed by the dozens of casinos that generate nearly all of its tax money, and whose residents often eschew higher education and other opportunities to work in them.


Mr. Pinto took over Ponto Final in 2000 after its previous owners decided they could no longer manage it, launched his magazine in 2007 and started running the historic bookshop jointly sponsored by the Portuguese government and a private institution in 2010 after its previous minders abandoned it. He was the only bidder for the five-year management contract.

Macau Closer editor Nuno Mendonça wrote in the arts magazine’s January edition that hosting a literary festival in Macau was “a daunting task, almost like trying to water a desert.”


But Mr. Pinto hopes the festival will both excite Macau’s nascent literary scene and raise its profile on the international stage. Many of the visiting authors have accepted the organizers’ invitation to write stories about Macau after the event. The Script Road is also hosting a short-story competition open to all. The winning English, Chinese and Portuguese stories will be published alongside the visiting authors’ contributions.


Mr. Pinto said the festival’s trilingual program was a key aspect of celebrating Macau’s multiculturalism, though he admitted the organizers encountered an occasional hiccup with Google Translate.


“I did not go to school in Milwaukee, and I did not write a book called ‘Sex,’” laughed Taiwanese guest writer Lolita Hu, whose bio has been corrected on the festival’s website. But she said perhaps she should consider writing such a book, which she imagines would sell quite well. “A book about sex by someone named Lolita!”


原文網址:http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2012/01/30/in-macau-a-literary-fest-blooms-among-the-casinos/

TDM Talk Show Interview

Lolita Hu on TDM Talk Show: “Embrace the confusion of life”

image

Macau’s first literary festival kicked off this week and Lolita Hu was one of the many top notch writers invited to participate in ‘The Script Road’.

Originally from Taiwan, Hu writes about the meaning of modernity in the context of urban life and the constant struggle for identity living anonymously in the city.
Also the former editor for big-name men’s magazines such as Esquire, Playboy and Maxim, Lolita Hu was on the TDM Talk Show this week to talk about her life as a writer, her traveling experiences as a global citizen and her shifting identity as an Asian woman.
“I really enjoy the event just because, although I did live in Hong Kong before and I came to visit Macau several times before as a tourist, I never really had a chance to get in contact with the Portuguese community here,” said Hu on her first international literary festival.
Calling the Portuguese writers she met in Macau a ‘big underground world hiding under a casino world’, Hu said Taiwan and Portugal have a unique connection.
“Taiwan and Portugal in some way are both so-called ‘small countries’, under the shadow of bigger countries. So when we talk about the advantage or disadvantage of being a small country writer, we totally can relate.”
With this connection, Hu said she sometimes prefers Portuguese writers over others.
“For example as a smaller country, the good thing is we are curious about other cultures, we learn and try to adapt and observe other people. For big society writers, they tend to look to their own culture and own country, they don’t speak other languages and they don’t really look outside,” said Hu.

The ‘Asian Lolita’

Hu wasn’t born with the name Lolita. She took on the name when she graduated from the National Taiwan University and became the editor for Taiwan’s Esquire Magazine.
“I kind of challenged people and said ‘call me Lolita if you dare’,” said Hu.
As far as she’s concerned, being ‘Lolita’ has its perks.
“It’s interesting – how you react to the name shows more about you and not about me,” said Hu.
After taking the name, Hu went on to be the editor for Esquire, Playboy and Maxim in Taiwan.
Working as a female editor for a men’s magazine, Hu said, also has its perks.
“I always try to make those cover girls feel more comfortable. I will try to give more dignity to the girls. And one thing I will try to do is to use older models too – which is I guess something the male editor wouldn’t do. I am more like a spy hiding on the other side, I’ll observe the men’s ‘rules’, but (sometimes I can change the reality a little bit),” said the writer.

The traveler
Having worked and lived in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Paris, New York and now in Japan, Hu is no doubt a ‘city girl’.
As torturous as city life can be, Hu wouldn’t trade it for anything else. She wrote it all in her first book ‘The Traveler’.
“In the era of so called globalization (… ) I want to write a book about that. Who I am, what I am doing – and when I am traveling around the world, what’s my relationship with the world like? ”
And that book was Hu’s quest to break out of the ‘Chinese identity’.
“I wrote that book, and then suddenly I tried to cross the border. For Chinese people, especially Chinese in China – they have to be Chinese, Chinese first (…) then I’m a woman, then I’m daughter.” Hu continued. “But in modern society, the priority is reversed. I have to be a human being, I have to be a woman, then I’m a Jazz fan, and then I’m a writer, and then I’m a daughter, and so on. Then I am (Chinese). I call it modernity. You are allowed to have individual identity first before you become this big collective one.”
When asked if she has found her own individual identity, Hu said not having one is the biggest blessing.
“Being confused, [not knowing] who you are, to have no clue, is a normal status for modern human beings. We should be confused, because there is so [much] information out there, there’s internet, there’s TV there’s everything – every day you see someone, there are so many strangers floating around you and you are strangers to other people. Every day is exhausting, but it’s also called freedom – because you have to navigate on your own.”
So for Hu, the way to deal with it all – is to embrace the confusion.

原文網址:http://www.macaudailytimes.com.mo/macau/33430-Lolita-TDM-Talk-Show-Embrace-the-confusion-life.html

明報專訪




(從澳門路環飯店房間陽台,向外眺望竹灣。)






【明報專訊】胡晴舫就像以身作則,兩次會面都在不同城市,彷彿為她的城市書寫說明現代社會的流動。

首次相見,是在地震後的日本。

大災難降臨,原來文明原來十秒就被摧眦,但城市人的韌性是,居酒屋再坐滿,喝酒的心情更加濃烈。

第二次,即是次訪問,地點在澳門,她出席第一屆澳門華文與葡萄牙文文學節,同場還有另一葡裔導演與她作訪談。
三名過客,機緣巧合在異地相聚,國語和英語穿插,討論寫作、創作和人生。
這一刻,世界彷彿很大同,文學和藝術是我們的共同語言。

在中港市民以言語互相傷害、鄙視,甚至杯葛而忘了包容和了解的今天,晴舫四處游走的生活經驗,或可為城市邊界之間的矛盾、身分問題、本土意識、金錢和權力間的衝撞角力,提供一點思考。

胡晴舫筆鋒冷峻得很,多本作品,都針對城市人落筆,她冷眼旁觀並記錄城市生活 的光怪離奇。為畸形上班族寫下《辦公室》;將亞洲女性的不同面貌收錄在《她》中;旅行書出得天花龍鳳,《旅人》卻以評論旅行出發……她的直接,或會冒犯了 你,讀者未必喜歡她的作品,就像你不會特別喜歡一部悲劇,但始終欣賞編劇的誠實和勇氣。胡晴舫擅長描述,她細緻將洋裢逐瓣剝開,裏面的芯,大多是我們不去 面對的,過程辛辣刺激,令人流淚,但那並不是哭泣,哭泣太煽情了,非她所願,最多只能說是淚腺的分泌。



有話說才寫

 把個人抽空,主題宏觀,她以「節約」形容自己的文體,有話要說時才寫,有她的 原因:「中文寫作有一定的濫情,尤其注重抒情,大家都喜歡用『我』,講『我們』時其實是講『我』。台灣文學的傳統分類是散文跟小說,散文就是很多『我』, 我覺得不一定要這樣。」她希望創作一種新文體,特別是在現代社會,目前的狀態,抒情和理性應並重,這對城市人或者也是提醒——當每個人都以自己出 發,ego只會激烈碰撞,她說:「抒情已經很多人寫,我努力往理性去推,因感到華人相對比較少做哲思,而我自己想往這方向走。做哲思,就要把『人』抽開, 因為事情已經不光是關於我的,而是存在的問題。」

她每次用「我」,都要很清楚自己為什麼用,曾經修讀戲劇的晴舫,特別清楚社會 的表演——每個人每天面對不同的人,其實都在扮演不同角色,「我」不見得只有一個:「作者根本沒有真我,我一開始就想避免這種虛偽。」她續:「當一開始有 兩個人對話,一定會有某種社會表演的意味,我的誠懇是,我一開始就不要騙你,因為我根本不可能把真我寫給別人看,有時候甚至我也不是那麼清楚,不知道我是 誰。」

城市並不善良……因為身分模糊是現代人都面對的問題:流動大大提高,同樣是黃 皮膚,卻有中國人、台灣人、香港人、新加坡人、日本人……之別,頭三者的矛盾更特別嚴重。城市人面對他者,相互比較,更加看見並要突出自身之別;網絡和虛 擬世界,使地域距離消隱;全球化的加劇,異化、同化不斷發生。晴舫特別提到台灣護照與台灣人身分,總是不被國際認同,不被看見。加上國與國的政治利害,城 與城之間競爭,已發展對發展中國家的剝削,種種問題,扭曲覑城市人的生活,抑或是,城市生活早已經扭曲,令這些變本加厲?這使晴舫對城市書寫覑迷。她在變 化來前,總要問,未來將有什麼事情等覑?

一名台灣女子,嫁給一個羅馬尼亞人,移居香港十年餘,曾往內地工作,現居日 本,常隨丈夫往不同國家出差,晴舫在各國亞洲,甚至國際都會頻繁穿梭,給予她大量風景去記錄和分析當代現象。她知道核心並不因城市步伐過急、資本社會現實 或石屎森林冰冷。回到最基本,這是人的問題:「就像我的新書《城市的憂鬱》所講,城市是人造的,很多人都說城市違反人性,我說錯,城市最大的問題是太符合 人性,為何?城市邪惡,因為我們其實很邪惡,只是大家忘記了。」



城市反映了我們自己

 人人都覺得自己很善良,怪罪別人欺負自己,晴舫一貫不留情面:「我們一點都不善良,常常欺負彼此。」她指出,城市的問題複雜,因為人性複雜:「城市反映了我們自己,你在鄉間未必會看到人類,但在城市裏,一定能看到。」

城市生活的殘酷也教會她另一件事——死亡:「現代生活讓你知道,目前的所見所 感,明天就沒有了,來去極快。消亡之後,很快被取代。」以晴舫的反映論解釋,這大概由於城市人追求效率、喜歡速度,但變相,城市人是善變、貪新忘舊的物 種……她以此比喻:「就像你坐在一架列車上,某人坐在你前面,但他一下車,你便不會再見到他。城市幾乎所有事物都是come and go,餐館如是,書籍如是,身邊的人、上司、朋友,一切事物皆如此出現,然後消失。」因為急速消亡,她更加要書寫,以詩人波德萊爾所提出的Flaneur ——城市浪游者的身分,將路上看到的事、身邊的人、眼前的現象,他於一百年前已為城市的面貌變得比人心還快感慨。晴舫承接這種城市觀察者的身分,於不同城 市晃蕩,寫下紀錄,因她知道今天事物消失的速度,只怕比一百年前更快更急:「眼前的景物,於下個街角轉彎,已不盡相同。」下個街角,究竟會碰到誰或什麼, 充滿隨機偶然,晴舫抓緊細節,以Flaneur的態度寫作,也以之生活,也是希望能在地獄找到天堂之門。




觀察者身分寫下城市變化

有別於她筆鋒的冷靜,胡晴舫真人敏感感性,面對覑生活的複雜,她必須為自己找 尋出口。像她回憶自己小時候:「我是一個過分嚴肅的女孩,非常critical,喜歡批判事情,別人總以為我對一切都生氣憤怒。舉例說,天邊可能一片雲都 沒有,但是我會看到地上的陰影,家人和朋友都覺得我神經病。」寫作對她的好處,是她可以運用比較中庸的文字去表達這個陰影,「別人看了會了解,會覺得, 啊,那裏真的有一個陰影」。這種喜歡批判的態度放到書寫上,突然又變成她獨特的優點,她總是看到相反的東西,「這給我不一樣的角度去看事情,正如,我在完 美裏,會看到不完美的地方,很多不完美裏頭,反而看到完美」。她的文學,就是要打破看似完美的狀態,希望世界的運行,朝向更好的方向。




真人感性不似筆鋒冷靜

 而在她個人,在她的城市觀察反映的人性不完美裏,通過作家的敏銳,她能夠看到美好,所以她對城市從不厭倦,她找到她的平衡。「小時候,我從文學的世界裏,知道世界之大,人性有善有惡。唯有年紀漸長,在不同的城市生活,以外國人身分 與不同人接觸,我才更懂得對善意感恩。」她形容寫作為「蒸餾」,「以前我也會感到bitter(苦澀),就像我在辦公室工作的不愉快,我知道自己不喜歡服從大眾的普世價值觀,所以我寫《辦公室》,是去deal with自己的bitterness」。年紀漸長,智慧的凝煉,令她更易接受不完美的生活裏,從中找出愉悅:「比如我去到別國,當地人有他們的生活,與我其實全然 無關,他們實在沒必要對我好,但是仍然充滿善意。」明白善意並非必然,使本來悲觀的她,特別珍惜美好的事情:「城市人的每一天,可能充滿壞經歷,24小時都在不愉快當中度過,好的時光只有兩分鐘,但我會專注於這兩分鐘。」

晴舫說:「快樂是要創造的,人們總是叫我們去尋找快樂,感受快樂。其實更應該用雙手創造,這是為什麼我們會有電影、文學、藝術。」在虛無的城市裏,晴舫找到自己存在的理由,她亦希望她的書,能夠帶給別人美好的一兩個小時。


文 饒雙宜

明報網站原址:http://ol.mingpao.com/cfm/style5.cfm?File=20120205/sta13/uaa1.txthttp://ol.mingpao.com/cfm/style5.cfm?File=20120205/sta13/uaa1.txt