2022-8-13
一口气读完了李查德崔卡斯基1961年写的《到上海的最后一架飞机》(Last Plame to Shanghai),是几年前村子里的社区大学图书馆下架处理的小说中的一本。描写的是1948年美国新闻记者从上海深入内地采访国共内战期间发生的故事,是传统的爱情噼腿情节,写得引人入胜,欲罢不能。
书中有两个地名,一个是穆克丹(Mukden),大家都知道的,是满语盛京的意思,就是历史上的辽宁奉天和现在沈阳,一个是喀儿干(Kalgan),又叫卡拉根,是大家都未必知道的,是蒙古语关口、关卡和聚会之门的意思,就是现在的河北张家口。
书中另外的一段文字,是描写中国人在公共场所的喧闹和不讲文明,可谓是一针见血,入木叁分,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.