這篇文章很久前就有人寄給我，看了之後心情十分複雜，但一時也說不清楚。

這幾天，文章又藉由email循環回來了。我再看了一遍，並且找到了荷語與英文的版本寄給幾位在英國認識的朋友。一位埃及人很快地回覆了我，看到他的回覆內容，我想我大概知道之前心中複雜的感受從何而來。

本文附上各不同版本的聯結，並且將email中的內容譯成中文(將姓名或私人資訊刪除)。也算是一個生活經驗的紀錄。

中文版:http://www.esouth.org/modules/wordpress/?p=81
英文版:http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/jw!kcaOWSSBCRs3xvlMOSGhtKgRy.kLITfv/article?mid=1130
荷文版:http://www.trouw.nl/deverdieping/letter-geest/article375747.ece/Liefde_en_

埃及朋友的回覆:

Thank you for the article. You must be very proud of your very advanced country. But, to be honest with you, and from my middle eastern point of view, from the article I got the feeling that Taiwan is vastly practical and not an intimate country. It is like a beautiful female model; she is very beautiful, smart, fit, but she has no soul or inner beauty. I prefer the chaos of Egypt and the outer ugliness since it is accompanied with a real human feelings and strong family and friendship relations. You may not like my opinion, but this is the life; people should be different in order for the life to continue. It would be a disaster if all of the people love the same thing.


嗨，

謝謝你的文章。我想你必然以自己國家的進步為傲。不過，老實說，由我中東人的觀點來看，這篇文章讓我覺得大多台灣人現實而無感情。猶如一切完美的模特兒卻沒有靈魂與內在。我比較喜歡埃及外在的醜與亂，因為它與親切的互動以及親友的強烈情感共生。或許你不喜歡我的意見，不過這就是人生。人群間的差異使人生繼續。如果我們都一樣，那就慘了。

我的回覆:

First of all, I did not send you this article because I want to show how good my country is. I just appreciate that there is a foreigner who is willing to write done his observation in Taiwan. This is seldom seem. I thought it would be interesting to share his view with you guys. So do not worry, I expect people would have different feeling about this article. In fact, I believe this article also induced different response among Taiwanese. Additionally, I agree Taiwanese society is not perfect but not entirely for the reasons this author has mentioned.

首先，我並非因為想要展示自己的國家有多棒而繼這篇文章給你們。我只是覺得難得有個外國人願意將他在台灣的所見所聞寫出來。把這篇有意思的文章與大家分享。請別緊張，我也覺得每個人對於文章的內容會有不同的意見。事實上，相信這篇文章在台灣人間也會引發不同的迴響。此外，我同意台灣社會有許多不完美之處，但是不全然是作者所說的這些。

What you said could be very true if you explore the city part of Taiwan. As mentioned in the article, Taiwanese get a sense that we have to be very strong to survive in the world and under the shadow or influence of China. I agree very much with the description of the author that ”......seems like the citizens of Taiwan situate themselves in a jumbo jet: if the pace slows down below a certain speed, then it will crash.” He described how we feel very precisely. Perhaps, being a Taiwanese, we have to carry this burden. (Just like English somehow have to dislike French, haha) I often think if we did not produce the majority amount of semiconductors and computers that world needs and is not the major economic body in the world, perhaps it would be difficult for us to still be an independent region (if not country) from China. If we are not important in a way to the world, the world would not give a damn about whether Taiwan exists or suddenly disappears.

如果只遊歷台灣的城市，你所說的可能是非常正確的。就如在文章中所說，在中國的陰影與影響下，台灣人認為如果不持續的變強，就無法生存。我同意作者的描述”台灣人覺得自己如駕噴射機，如果失速，就會墜毀。”他精確地描述了台灣人的感受。或許，這是生而為台灣人的包袱。(也就像不知為何英國人對法國人就是沒有好感一般的自然。嘿。)我常想如果我們沒有產出大部分世界所需的半導體與電腦，也不是世界主要的經濟體，那台灣就不可能持續這種成為獨立於中國之外的區域(或者國家)的狀態。如果我們不讓自己變得重要，世界上的國家是不可能對於台灣是否存在有什麼感受的。

We are very practical indeed because we have to survive. (but most of the time, people are friendly to foreigners. Otherwise how do you think it is possible for this foreign guy talked to so many people so openly just within two weeks?) That, however, does not mean we are not affectionate. People do not hold hand in the public does not really mean they do not love each other. People in the countryside just do not express love in a westernized way. We do not say I love you, but share food to show we love somebody just because in our grandmother generation, most of people cannot even feed themselves with sufficient food. Under that circumstances, sharing food is really a very generous expression of love. Much more valuable than just saying it. This become part of our culture so even we are a better and wealthier society now, we still use food to express friendliness and love. If fact, in Taiwanese language, we greet each other by saying ”have you eaten yet” than ”how are you today” when we try to make light and relaxed conversation instead of formal conversation.

我們的確是現實的，因為我們要生存。(但我們也對外國人友善，不然你覺得這位外國先生有可能在兩週內找到如此多人對他暢所欲言嗎？)現實並不代表我們沒有感情。在鄉間的人們不公開牽手是因為他們對於西方表達情感的方式並不習慣。我們不說我愛你，卻以分享食物來表達情感。這是因為在我們祖母那個年代，大部分的人並不容易吃飽。在這情況下，分享食物比口頭上說我愛你其實表現出更大的愛意。這也成為我們文化的一部份。就算在現今富裕的社會中，食物仍然是我們表達友善與愛的一種方式。事實上，在台灣話中，我們用”吃飽沒?”而非”你好嗎?”來互相問候，這樣接下來的對話比較親切而不嚴肅。

One thing the author did not say or realize is in those parents’ opinion, to train their children to be stronger is also another kind of love because they do not want their children to be left behind since nowadays, the children have not only to compete with children in Taiwan but also those around the world. (Though somehow I think perhaps it is not necessary to overload the children with these extracurricular activities to make them a good person. A lot of the outstanding people do not receive top education anyways.) Perhaps this kind of love is a bit over, too implicit, and may not be right, but that is how people love their children in Taiwan. My own experience is not that extreme. My parents pay more attention on our moral behaviour than the school grade. So I do not have to be forced to learn these things. That is why I said this is part of Taiwanese life but not all of them. And by the way, we do have strong family relations. In fact, a considerable amount of Chinese think Taiwan preserved more traditional Chinese family values than China because we did not have communist culture revolution which met to destroy all the traditional value.

有件事或者作者沒提到或是不了解。對文章中所提到的父母來說，鍛鍊小孩使其變強也是愛意的一種表現。因為他們的孩子不只要和臺灣人競爭，還要與世界上其他人競爭。(雖然我個人認為這樣以課外活動填鴨小孩沒有必要。有成就的人不必然一定是受過頂尖的教育。)也許這種愛對孩子來說是有些過火、太過隱晦、也不全然正確，但這就是台灣人愛孩子的方式。而我自身的經驗並沒有如此極端。我的父母對於品德要求超過學校成績。我也並沒有被逼著學習額外的技藝。所以我說文章中的所提到的現象只是台灣的一部份。順帶一提，我們的家族觀念是強的。事實上，為數不少的中國人覺淂台灣保存了更多傳統中國家庭的價值觀。因為台灣並沒有經歷文化大革命。文革以摧毀所有的傳統價值為主要的目標。

I remember you told me that you do enjoy staying in Japan. Frankly, Taiwan, in some way, is more like Japan than China. I also found that a lot of description in this article fit the profile of Japan as well. (Do you know some of the Japanese pre-school require entrance exams, sometimes both on parents and child? How practicle this would be......) Therefore, I am optimistic that if one day you have chance to visit Taiwan, you will also like my country as you like Japan. ^^ I hope you will have chance to visit Taiwan in the future and experience what Taiwan is by yourself. I do also hope to visit Egypt someday to experience the chaos that you have enjoyed.

我記得你曾提到對於日本之行的美好經驗。說實在的，台灣在某方面和日本更像。我也發現文中有許多敘述也符合日本的狀況。(你知道有些日本幼稚園要求家長與小朋友都要參加入學考試嗎?這對你來說應該夠現實了吧……)也因此，我倒不擔心若你有機會到台灣一遊，你會不喜歡台灣。你應該會喜歡台灣就如你喜歡日本一般。我希望真的有那麼一天。我也希望有機會能一遊埃及，體驗你所享有的混亂城市。

Thanks for sharing your opinion, reading this long email and reading the article I sent you.

謝謝你讀了我傳的文章、這封長信並與我分享你的感想。