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.