2022-8-13

一口氣讀完了李查德崔卡斯基1961年寫的《到上海的最後一架飛機》（Last Plame to Shanghai），是幾年前村子裡的社區大學圖書館下架處理的小說中的一本。描寫的是1948年美國新聞記者從上海深入內地採訪國共內戰期間發生的故事，是傳統的愛情噼腿情節，寫得引人入勝，欲罷不能。

書中有兩個地名，一個是穆克丹（Mukden），大家都知道的，是滿語盛京的意思，就是歷史上的遼寧奉天和現在瀋陽，一個是喀兒干（Kalgan），又叫卡拉根，是大家都未必知道的，是蒙古語關口、關卡和聚會之門的意思，就是現在的河北張家口。

書中另外的一段文字，是描寫中國人在公共場所的喧鬧和不講文明，可謂是一針見血，入木叄分，不留情面：

• "See how quiet they are in their hardship," he said with enthusiasm. "Manhood at its best is quiet - if I may quote from Master Kung." Master Kung would be Confucius, the name Kung Fu-tzu rendered into English. I nodded politely, thinking how very few Chinese in my experience were manhood at its best, by the standard of quietness. In Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, every place I had seen them they were the noisiest, most ebullient people I knew, even in abject poverty and near starvation.