Crystal Violet

接連兩天都不小心讀到外國人眼中的台灣/台灣人,而且都不是往昔常見"台灣=親切=人情味"的角度,帶給我很大的culture shock.

Into Thin Air的爭議性很大,就不說了.

這篇瑞士記者眼中的台北,把他的觀察說得很誠懇中肯,讓人無法反駁.看完覺得好像天氣更冷了,ㄟ害.這篇文章的譯者是顏敏如小姐,是位非常優秀的作家,她的網站是寶庫啊.

摘錄一些精彩的片段留在這裏:

A Swiss woman who lived in Taiwan for a long time says: ‘the only thing that counts for these people is food and making money. Love and sex are not important. If somebody says ‘I love you’, then it means nothing, but if he gives you a big piece of his meat then you know you are important for him.’

一個長時間住在台灣和中國的瑞士女人告訴我：「對這些人來說，重要的是錢和吃，愛與性不重要。如果有人說我愛你，那是沒有意義的。但是如果他給你一塊盤子裡的肉，你就知道，你對他來說很重要。」

...‘you think that our society is so colorful and free but it looks like that because we don’t have roots. Our parents were immigrants, they were lost when they came here and nowadays they don’t understand anything anymore. We are all orphans, and our children will be like that as well... ‘Many people don’t work till 10 pm because they have to, but because of inner emptiness. They dream to have earned to retire at the age of 50, and when they reached it they die of boredom.’


...「你以為我們的社會是如此多彩多姿與自由？其實它只是看似如此，因為我們沒有根。我們的父母移民來台灣，卻沒有家的感覺，今天他們不再試圖去瞭解來由。我們都是孤兒，我們的孩子也會一樣。...許多人工作到晚上十點，他們必須如此，是因為內心空虛，他們夢想在五十歲時存夠錢以便退休，然後死於無聊。」

Even lately China paid the small island nation of Nauru in the Pacific Ocean the amount of 150 million dollar to change their diplomatic affairs from Taipei to Peking. Taiwan can hardly cope with this process. Taiwan can only try, behind the political scene, to keep them indispensable in economical way. But that takes a lot of energy and is a lonely task.

On the last day we drive to a “children’s recreational center”. It looks like an Asian Walt Disney park. A luxurious place, however there were no children, not one. ‘Nowadays they prefer to play at home on their computer’, a supervisor tells us; another supervisor says “most kids have courses at night”; and the guard at the entrance says: ’The parents don’t have time to come over here with kids.’ On the way back I see a scenery while driving: an empty playground where a man in suit is making a phone call while the rain starts dripping.

最近中國付給太平洋的小島諾魯一億五千萬美元，讓他們放棄台北而和北京建交。台灣很難跟得上，只能試著在正式關係之外，讓自己（特別在經濟上）無可取代。這就要花更多的精力並且也是寂寞的工作。

最後一天我們開車去「兒童育樂中心」，那是種亞洲華德迪士奈樂園，是一個美麗的、花了相當多錢建造的地方，卻看不到遊玩的兒童。一個都沒有！「現在的小孩喜歡在家玩電腦」，一個管理員告訴我們。另一個則說：「大部份的孩子晚上都還有課。」門口守衛說：「父母沒時間帶孩子來。」

在回程的路上我捕捉到一個景象：無人的遊樂場中，一個穿著西裝的男人坐在鞦韆上打著手機，而雨滴也開始落下。