Chua Chim Kang 蔡深江 (b. 1965)

CRITICAL INTRODUCTION

双城对倒：遗失的月光——浅析蔡深江《如果不能回头就忘记月亮》 [Against Two Cities: The Lost Moonlight: An Analysis of Chua Chim Kang’s Forgetting The Moonlight If One Cannot Start Again]

Written by Ang Jin Yong
Translated by Jonathan Chan
Dated 9 Nov 2023

导论

蔡深江是80年代“新生代”的诗人，是金狮奖首奖得主，更远负国立台湾大学修读中国文学系。首本诗集《如果不能回头就忘记月光》（蔡深江1989，以下简称《月光》），不仅记录了诗人对“诗”在探索与实验，也不经意间记录下了80年代，以及自己游移新台之间，两地的情感、反思与观察。两座城市给予了他极大的文学养分，在学习、思乡和成长之间，他选择用诗作为生活最美好的见证。

异乡台北

 “台北”是诗人留学的城市，但是作为一个留台生，诗人需要适应这座“异乡”，即便已三四年，从适应到接受，接受成为一部分后得离开。因此诗中总蕴藏了一种“疏离”感，像是谈了一场轰轰烈烈的恋爱，需无奈离分时才使感触最深刻。如〈台北再見〉初初写道“台北，其实第一次见到你，我就想说再见”，似乎一开始就对台北有了不良好的印象，不是“计程司机创红灯”，就是得“追赶台北的时差”（蔡深江1989：43）。但诗循序渐进时，对台北的一种留恋也随之推进，“怀念拥挤的街道上／并不怎么通畅的视线／因念旧而触礁”。在这里，诗人显然与台北有了一种剪不断理还乱的情感，虽然对其街道与交通有所异议，但是毕竟在那里生活了一段时间，还是和那座城市有了情感。这或许是诗人凝固在潜意识里的一种“台北情结”（刘碧娟2014：304）。

故乡新加坡

相较于台北“异乡”，诗人对新加坡作为“家乡”有种特殊情感，更有种“本土化”的情怀（殷宋玮1989：101-102），诗集中不仅有家国历史，也有家乡土地给予他的童年回忆。诗集中的〈山尼拉乌他马及其他〉也正是他在台大大三时获新加坡金狮奖首奖之作，其意义深远。该组诗将新加坡的英语单词“SINGAPORE”分成独自的字母，每组之始以一个字母开头，并予一个副标题搭配。如“N：三又十二分之八”描写了新加坡被日军占领了三年零八月的磨难，而日本竟敢串改历史课本；“P：分割手术”则描写了新马分家的“分割手术”，并强调手术“惨痛，并且成功”（蔡深江1989：85-89）。虽然都是在阐述新加坡的历史，但是诗人选择的意象与比喻：“日历”、“国王的新衣”、“连体婴手术”等都处处透露了诗人对这些历史事件的独特视角，也同时制造了另一种“想象空间”历史课题阅读起来不那么冗长无趣。

除了阐述历史，诗集也有许多诗作描写了诗人的童年，例如〈童年〉，通过儿童独特的想象与角度描写诗人想和蚯蚓去钓鱼、要风陪他回家等（蔡深江1989：49）。〈忘了带你去看我童年〉则是描写了他童年的回忆，“那是一个荡着秋千的下午，有花飞过，你说，跳舞的伤口”（蔡深江1989：55）。然而，作者不只是一味地沉浸在美妙的童年回忆里，他的诗作也时刻提醒读者现实与童年之间的距离。〈儿童节〉就形象化地描写了诗人的童年被“摧残”，“儿童节在一次大雨之后／晾在竹竿上被风不断拉扯／几乎脱臼／而沙滩堆筑的碉堡／因为经不起海潮／兀自卸下工程便离去了／我的一双惊愕的童年还盯在沙子瓦解的那一刹那” （蔡深江1989：53），似乎想提醒读者所谓美好的童年都会有被摧毁和瓦解的瞬间。

小结

《月光》里描写了两座城市里生活的点滴，以情写理，以理抒情。诗人在描写台北时常常带有一种“剪不断，理还乱”的情结，并不时夹带疏离和第三人称的视角与创作中。然而，在书写新加坡历史和童年回忆时，作品相交下比较贴近诗人，没有隔阂、没有水土不服，更多的是思念与回忆，同时，在选用意象方面则更调皮、古灵精怪，好似挑逗读者一般。这本诗集是80年代一个独特的存在，也能从多种角度去欣赏、分析及解读，因篇幅关系，笔者仅抽出“异地对比”做为其中一个方式试介绍《月光》。诗集中，若以不断重复的意象、课题，必然是“月光”和“树”，相信仔细阅读后，〈如果还有一颗树活着〉（蔡深江1989：16-20）也一定能吸引读者将整本诗集一口气看完。

参考资料（按作家姓名拼音排列）

  1. 蔡深江。1989。《如果不能回头就忘记月光》，新加坡：新加坡华中初级学院。

  2. 刘碧娟。2014。《新华文学中的现代主义，1965-2000年》，新加坡：南洋理工大学中文系硕士论文。https://dr.ntu.edu.sg/bitstream/10356/59105/1/liwp0001phDthesis2014.pdf。（见于2022年3月13日）。

  3. 殷宋玮。1989。〈江流成迹——蔡深江其人及其诗〉，蔡深江《如果不能回头就忘记月光》，新加坡：新加坡华中初级学院，页101-102。

Introduction

Chua Chim Kang is regarded as one of the “new generation” poets of the 1980s in Singapore. He received the Golden Lion Literary Award in 1991 for his poetry and studied Chinese literature at the National Taiwan University. His poetry collection,《如果不能回头就忘记月光》[Forgetting the Moonlight if One Cannot Start Again] (1989) not only records his explorations and experiments in poetry, but also inadvertently captures a sense of the 1980s, especially his travels between Taiwan and Singapore and his emotions, reflections, and observations regarding both. Both cities have nourished Chua’s literary work. Between his studies, his homesickness, and his personal growth, Chua chose poetry as the medium that was best able to serve as a testimony of his life. 

Taipei: A Foreign Land

Taipei is the city where the poet studied abroad, yet as an international student, Chua needed to adapt to this “foreign land”, even after three to four years, transitioning from mere adaptation to acceptance. After having acceptance become a part of his life, Chua then had to leave Taipei. Thus, Chua’s poems always contain a sense of ‘detachment’, akin to speaking of a passionate affair, where it is only at the point of parting that one experiences the most profound sensations. For example, at the opening of his poem <台北再見> [“Farewell to Taipei”], Chua writes: 

台北，其实第一次见到你，我就想说再见

[Taipei, actually from the first time I saw you, I wanted to say goodbye]

This gives the sense that the speaker has a poor impression from the beginning. If it is not the “taxi drivers who shoot past red lights” then it is having to “chase after Taipei’s time difference”. Yet as the poem progresses, so too does the speaker’s lingering attachment to Taipei. 

怀念拥挤的街道上
并不怎么通畅的视线
因念旧而触礁

[Yearning for the crowded streets
Yet without a clear line of sight
Because I reminisce, I am left undone]

Clearly, the speaker possesses an unresolved, messy set of emotions. Though he holds objections to the city’s streets and traffic, having lived in the city for a period, the speaker has developed an attachment to the city. This could perhaps be a kind of “Taipei complex” that the speaker has developed, one that has solidified in his subconscious (Liw, “A Study of Modernism in Singapore Chinese Literature, 1965‑2000”, 2014).

Singapore: A Homeland

In contrast to the “foreign land” of Taipei, Chua possesses a special attachment to his ‘homeland’ of Singapore, a warmth that arises from having a feeling of local affinity (Yin, “The Flowing River Leaves Traces”, 1989).

Chua’s collection contains not only poems about Singapore’s history but also about his childhood memories in his hometown. The sequence <山尼拉乌他马及其他> [“Sang Nila Utama and Others”] won him Singapore’s Golden Lion Literary Award in 1991 when he was in his third year at National Taiwan University, a poem that continues to have far-reaching significance. As an acrostic poem, each segment starts with a letter from the word “SINGAPORE”. The section <N：三又十二分之八> [“N: Three and Eight Twelfths”] depicts the sufferings and ordeals experienced in Singapore during the Japanese Occupation for three years and eight months, which revisionist history books in Japan continue to challenge. The section <P：分割手术> [“P: Separation Surgery”] describes the separation of Singapore and Malaysia through the image of “separation surgery”, and emphasises that the procedure was “painful, and also successful.” Though these poems describe incidents in Singapore’s history, Chua’s chosen metaphors, including a “calendar”, the “king’s new clothes”, and “conjoined twin surgery”, reveal his unique perspective toward these historical events. At the same time, they also create a kind of “imaginative space” where the subject of history ceases to seem tedious and uninteresting. 

Beyond these expositions on history, many poems in Chua’s collection also describe his childhood. For example, the poem <童年> [“Childhood”] taps into a child’s unique imagination and perspective to describe the speaker’s desire to go fishing with earthworms and ask the wind to accompany him home. The poem <忘了带你去看我童年> [“Forgetting to Bring You to Visit My Childhood”] also describes memories of Chua’s childhood. As he writes: 

那是一个荡着秋千的下午，有花飞过，你说，跳舞的伤口

[It was an afternoon on the swings, flowers flying by, you speaking, wounds from dancing]

However, Chua does not merely dwell on the rosy, positive memories he has of his childhood; his poems constantly remind the reader of the distance between reality and his childhood. The poem <儿童节> [“Children’s Day”] provides a vivid description of the “destruction” of the speaker’s childhood:

儿童节在一次大雨之后
晾在竹竿上被风不断拉扯
几乎脱臼
而沙滩堆筑的碉堡
因为经不起海潮
兀自卸下工程便离去了
我的一双惊愕的童年还盯在沙子瓦解的那一刹那

[Once, after a downpour on Children’s Day,
What hung on the bamboo poles was pulled relentlessly by the wind
Almost dislocated like a joint
And the fortresses built on the sandy beach
Because they could not withstand the tides
Yet I removed my work and I left
My childhood, stunned, fixated still on the moment the sand disintegrated]

It is as if the speaker wants to remind the reader that the wonderful memories of one’s childhood will all be destroyed and disintegrate in an instant. 

Conclusion

Forgetting The Moonlight If One Cannot Start Again describes the experience of living between two cities, using emotions to write with reason, and using reason to express emotions. Chua’s depiction of Taipei is characterised by his unresolved, messy set of emotions, as well as with an undercurrent of detachment and third-person perspectives. However, when writing about Singapore’s history and his memories of childhood, Chua’s poetry intersects more frequently with his own life, without detachment, without a sense of the unfamiliar, yet even more so with his thoughts and memories. At the same time, Chua’s choice of images is quirkier and more mischievous, as if to tease the reader. Chua’s collection is a unique product of the 1980s and can be appreciated, analysed and interpreted from a variety of angles. In particular, Chua’s poem <如果还有一颗树活着> [“As Long As One Tree Lives On”] is sure to entice readers to read his entire collection of poems in one go.

Works cited

Chua, Chim Kang. Forgetting The Moonlight If One Cannot Start Again. Singapore. Hwa Chong Junior College, 1989. 

Liw, Pei Kien. “A Study of Modernism in Singapore Chinese Literature, 1965‑2000”. Doctoral thesis, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 2014.

Yin, Songwei. “The Flowing River Leaves Traces: Chua Chim Kang and his poems”. In Forgetting The Moonlight If One Cannot Start Again. Singapore. Hwa Chong Junior College, 1989. 

 

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