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叶宋曼瑛教授对《澳纽华文作品精选》作品的点评
作者:艾斯  发布日期:2016-01-21 12:20:09  浏览次数:3839
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叶宋曼瑛是奥克兰大学 亚洲研究院教授(现退休为Emeritus Professor)新西兰皇家科学院院士、新西兰文学院院士,因其努力与贡献曾获得Suffrage Centennial Medal,Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit. 她非常支持我们的工作,仔细阅读了全部的文稿,并撰写了下面长篇的点评。恕我译力有限,只好直接将原文录于下面。


Introduction

Professor Manying Ip

 

This anthology is a true labour of love.  A group of like-minded poets, essayists, and novelists based in Australia and New Zealand devoted more than two years of time to put this rare literary collection together.  All of these writers, without exception, hold demanding day jobs, working in various fields like academia, broadcasting, journalism, and other freelancing work.  Originally citizens of China, they have settled in their respective host countries for varying lengths of time, and yet they have continued to use Chinese as their medium of writing and self-expression.  As such, their works can be classified in the broader genre of “Chinese diaspora literature”.

One distinctive feature of this anthology is that it offers a fully bilingual text.  The original creative writings are in Chinese, and every piece is translated into English.  The translations are of reasonably high quality.  There is little doubt that the translators would have consulted with the writers to ensure that their final translations capture the finer nuances of the original.  I understand that the earnest intention of the editors and the writers is that their works be read and appreciated by a wider audience, beyond the usual ethnic Chinese communities in the host countries.  The English translations will hopefully enable mainstream Australians and New Zealanders who normally would not have very effective conduits to access the inner thoughts and feelings of their ethnic Chinese compatriots to understand them more deeply. To achieve greater cultural understanding with the mainstream audience, the editors and writers of this anthology have invested considerable time and effort to present their works in both English and Chinese.  Their efforts and laudable intentions should be properly recognised by readers of this volume.

Another feature of this anthology is that it consists of two main parts, divided according to their genre. The first part is a collection of poems, altogether 31 poems written by nine authors. The remaining part is a collection of prose writing and fiction, altogether 23 pieces. 

Among the authors are some names particularly familiar to me.  He, Yuhuai何与怀 used to be a colleague in Auckland, New Zealand. Our friendship can be dated back to the 1980s when he pursued his PhD degree in the University of Auckland. A number of New Zealand writers and poets have been active for decades, with their works frequently published in local newspapers.  Therefore, names like Ai, Si艾斯,Meng, Fangzhu孟芳竹etc. are rather familiar.  Zhang, Haifeng I got to know in recent years, again when he studied for his PhD in Auckland. Among the Australian authors, I need to confess my ignorance in not knowing them better and earlier. Ouyang, Yu歐陽昱is the only one whose works that I can claim to have known from an earlier time. We met in Australia in the 1990s.  From then onwards and over many years, I have been a reader of his publication Otherland.

The themes of many of the works, including poems, essays, and fiction, all touch on nostalgia for the homeland and the emotional trauma of migration, settlement, and displacement.  This is what readers of dispora literature would expect. What this anthology offers is the many different ways that the authors have chosen  to explore the themes, and the revealing angles with which they have taken in order to share with readers their insights and innermost feelings. A number of the works write about their experiences as immigrants in Australia and in New Zealand. They also show many aspects of the respective host countries through the perception of ethnic Chinese immigrants, from the outside looking in.

Poets might be “holding earthworms” like Ai,Si 艾斯or be a “sea watcher” like Bing, Fu 冰夫, but when they watch wild swans flying past or hear cicadas chirping, their nostalgic thoughts are invariably aroused, and the phenomenon would remind them of the physical distance between their adopted homeland and China.  Of course these are all part of their daily life: negotiating and continuously searching for and trying to establish a new home in a new land.  The poet might be admiring the moon and thinking of the goddess Chang’e; or they might lament the departure of the 'guest boat' with no returning date scheduled like Hong, Rubing 洪如冰. Or she might be quietly watching the changing scenes of autumn and "go through the seasons" at a leisurely pace, as described by Meng, Fangzhu 孟芳竹 in her series of poems. From the anticipation of autumn to savouring the full glory of fall colours… every other line of the poems contains vivid evocation of the longing for home.

The poems of Ouyang, Yu 欧阳昱 and Zhuang, Weijie 庄伟杰 are quite different from the poems outlined above.  Both tend to be less lyrical and subtle, and are more passionate and didactic.  They write with fire and conviction on their innermost feelings.  Both express themselves very directly.  No matter whether it be their present state of mind, or their strong feelings towards Australia and China.

The next section of the anthology is in prose form, and is made up of short stories, essays, journal style random thoughts, and there is even a review essay.

Short  stories is the most popular genre here.  Two short stories are by Ai, Si艾斯  “The violin” is probably based on the real life experience of how immigrants became easy prey of dishonest musical instrument dealers, but a solidarity and mutual appreciation exists among the immigrants themselves.

“Antipodean Spring Festival” depicts how ill-at-ease some of the first generation immigrants can be in trying to observe the Chinese New Year in their new home. Their traditional fried foods are found to be too oily and unhealthy, and the Chinese decorative lanterns might attract unwanted attention from burglars targeting Asian households. The story ends with an unsuccessful family outing to a surf beach, when parents and children attempted to be cheerful but never quite succeeded.

A number of the short stories show strong autobiographical elements, and are obviously based on the authors’ actual experience in Australia or New Zealand. Some authors might choose a chronological narrative while others might choose a snapshot approach. A couple of the pieces are comparatively lengthy: some of them over ten pages long. The narration also spans decades. For example, Shen,Zhimin 沈志敏 wrote “The Burning Tent” 燃烧的帐篷 which is a narration built around his experience of arriving in Australia, settling in, and then becoming a comfortable Australian resident and citizen.  The “tent” imagery in the title is inspired by his initial experience of buying a tent to live in when he was a casual grape picking worker in a vineyard in the Australian north.  He vividly depicted the physical hardship of living rough, and the meaningful encounters with aborigines and immigrant workers of many other ethnic groups.  One of his co-workers remarks that the sky is like a “huge black tent”. Fast forward to a few decades later, the author revisits the vineyard and the aboriginal cave.  Then he sees Ayers Rock in the golden sunset, and it looks like “a burning tent” to him.

Two short stories are similarly based on certain aspects of Australian life which made strong impressions on the authors. Ya, Qing崖青’s  “The Master Fortune Teller” 占卜大師  is centred around a conman trying to bluff his way through the Australian Chinese community by claiming to be a good ‘Feng shui’ master, he earns good money by fortune telling which he actually knows little about. In contrast, Hong, Fred P. 洪丕柱’s a central character is an Australian man who seems to be the very antithesis of a Chinese immigrant. In “The Great planner of the forest scheme",  the story is based in Cavendish, Queensland. The opening scene is a public community consultation meeting for training and employment. The central character is a “Mr Talker” , who is , in the writer’s words, a ‘typical Australian’’. He has a grand reforestation plan which he said could give employment to many people, and he recommended himself to be made project manager. As it turns out, Mr Talker has no particular skills, cannot even use the computer, and is lazy and inept. Then the author remembers that when he first arrived in Australia, presumably many years ago, he worked as a cleaner for Mr Talker who managed a backpacker hostel . “Now our positions, have reversed 180 degrees.” The author is the hard-working Chinese immigrant who has climbed the social and professional ladder, and Mr Talker just continues to languish in lethargy and can only be a planner of unrealistic schemes.

Several other stories are written in snapshot style, evolving from incidents centred around the diasporic communities. Mu, Xun 穆迅’s “No Turning Back” is centred around gambler father who is estranged from his family. Keke 珂珂’s ”A Twilight Romance”蓝血恋 starts with a chance meeting at Auckland airport. The Scottish old lady whom the author sits next to started sharing her unhappy romance story. The man she loved turns out to be a gay man in love with her brother. She lived through the Great War waiting for him. Suzi俗子 is the author of two pieces, both of which are Chinese community anecdotes. "Emerald necklace" is based on the life of immigrant ladies of leisure. While trying to find solace in expensive jewellery, one woman’s surprise is to find out that her cheating husband has bought even more expensive necklace for his lover. In "Peacock showing off its feathers”, a group of compulsive gamblers are preoccupied with wins on the mahjong table and slot machines. The story ends with one lady completely losing her mind in a casino.

While most of the works in the prose section has Australia or New Zealand as background, there are two stories set in China. Fu, Jinzhi付金枝 wrote "Da Mashun" s, which is a story of a humble woman in China. The protagonist is a village woman so simple and inoffensive that she wins over the sympathy and help of the people around her. Zhang, Jingfan张劲帆wrote "No 15 Yunmeng Street". It is a story contrasting the fortunes of two couples who live there. One couple is Blind Fu and his ugly wife, the other is a smart looking newlywed couple. The story line spans over a decade, with the humble couple prospering and the smart couple being killed in a traffic accident after going through an unhappy village. This long convoluted story obviously carries a moral lesson for the readers.

Bing,Fu冰夫 is the author of a short story “My neighbour Margaret”. Margaret is a retired nurse in her 80s, living alone but leading a happy and independent life. The author obviously admires her lifestyle, which is very different from that of conventional Chinese women whom he knew.

“The Inventor” by Zhang, Haifeng is the story of two young brothers who somehow invented a time machine which can transport them to the future. It is written in the form of semi-science fiction, with amusing episodes which occur in parallel time.

Ah Lee阿理 wrote two pieces of prose writing.  “To my precious daughter” is full of reminiscences. The author speaks through the mother, who recalls details of her relationship with her daughter, from the time of conception, the joy of seeing the baby’s image via ultrasound , tracing it all the way to the daughter's marriage. The other piece  "Sunrise, sunset" is also lyrical and expressive of the author’s feelings.

Parker, Anna安娜wrote two narrative essays “Touring around Arrowtown” and “Where does Paradise Road lead to?”  Both are essays describing the author’s visit to the historical Chinese settlement in New Zealand’s South Island. Arrowtown used to be the centre of Chinese settlement around the gold rush days. The author found it touching that so many ethnic Chinese tourists are interested in the tiny township.

Fan, Tony范士林’s two pieces are also essays sharing the author’s thoughts rather than stories with actual story lines. In “Children peddling tricycles” , the author enjoys the sight of a little girl peddling her tricycle happily on the Auckland waterfront. Then he has a flashback and thought of  a young boy in Bangladesh who carried customers on his tricycle for a living. This young boy was earning money to satisfy his father’s craving for cigarettes.  They are indeed “children from different worlds.”  Fan, Tony’s second piece is a review on “The Violin”, the first short story of the prose section.

The last two pieces are again essays. Huang, Weiqun黃惟群’s “Random notes on Paving my Driveway” is a vivid and detail account of how he enjoys doing odd jobs around the house, like laying pipes and replacing shower boxes. When he decided to pave his own driveway using some cheap used bricks, it proved to be extremely demanding physically. What he has not expected is that he needs to work outdoors for several days, and during the process, he has the chance to observe his neighbours in his little street. The observations and encounters greatly deepened his understanding of these neighbours, and offered him new insight into his own feelings.

Wu, Zhongjie吴中杰’s piece is originally written as a preface for a book by his friend Sha Yu.  The author and his friend knew each other in Shanghai from the early 1960s, before the Cultural Revolution. They lost contact during China’s dark years, and chanced to meet again in Sydney in the new millennium.  Sha Yu is a typical Chinese intellectual trying to reconcile with his past.  Wu describes how he wrote about the cultural revolution, and praises his interpretations and appraisals of well-known Chinese literary figures like Qian, Zhongshu, Yang, Xianyi, and Liang, Yusheng.

He, Yuhuai何与怀 wrote the last essay “Flashing daffodils”, built around the occasion when the  Wordsworth Trust organised over 3700 students reciting the well-known poem. Besides an appreciation of Wordsworth’s original work, the author also shared the reminiscences of his own teaching experience in China, and he discussed Guo Moruo’s critique of the poem, which he does not agree with.

I would like to thank the editors for their invitation to me to write this introduction. I hope to have done some justice to this anthology by introducing the many outstanding creative works written by talented, diligent and accomplished writers.

I hope that this anthology will be widely enjoyed by readers who could read the works in English or in Chinese, thereby fulfilling the editors’ laudable aim of bridging the cultural gap, and sharing with wide audiences the finer characteristics of Chinese diasporic literature. 




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