2015-02-21

【Aiden in English】

        The Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA) has more in store for all visitors’ expectations. Not only do they have the European Paintings, but the MMA dedicates huge sections of the museum to other cultures. At first, three hours seemed like plenty. However, time became an issue after using up two-thirds of that in the Greek/Roman Art and European Paintings.

        The MMA’s Chinese section looked pretty impressive. My favorite was the Classical Gardens of Suzhou, a replica of a Chinese landscape and courtyard. I have never, ever, ever seen it firsthand before. The experience made me feel very cool. The floor was made of tiles, and the roof was just like the pictures we saw in my Chinese history class at Guang Hua Chinese School in PA. They seemed like bamboo poles strapped together. Statures of Buddha were placed in the center of the wall with meditating. Next to the Great Wave Pavilion alongside Lingering Garden, there was a little lotus pond with golden fish swimming around aimlessly. 

        As we moved on, the Chinese section sort of faded away, leading into the Japanese exhibition. It showed us the traditions to Japanese life. Even though it wasn’t as large as the European Paintings, but a few certainly stood out. One very descriptive thing on display was a traditional room with a Tatami bed that could be found in most houses. This was why I believe that the Japanese and Chinese were a lot more intriguing than the European section where we didn’t have time to see the family-orientated setting. I believed this would make the pictures and information a lot more appealing. So this room had a straw-like carpet and a low, but very long and large table, small pillows lined the border of the table. They seemed good for sitting and relaxing. Although after living my entire life in tall chairs, everything was kind of plain, and the people didn’t seem to want extreme luxury, large, or level up.

        Egypt came to our last stop. The iPod blabbed on about hieroglyphs and I got lost on the second word. I walked into a replica of a tomb, which wasn’t all too amazing to me. When I was 8 years old almost four years ago, I went to visit Cairo, Alexandria, Sharm el Sheikh, Luxor, Thebes, Aswan, and many other places along the Nile. After a long vacation, I came back with a ton of eye-witness from St. Catherine Monastery, Temple of Philae/Abu Simbel/Kom Ombo/Karnak/Luxor/Hathor/Medinet Habu, Step Pyramid of Djoser, the Giza Pyramids, etc. When I saw the real tombs where Pharaohs were buried in along Valley of the Kings and Queens, this seemed too… too… too modern. There wasn’t much ancient feeling to it. Walls and hieroglyphs were man-made too purposefully to be ancient, which was why they weren’t the same. Just as everyone’s different, Confucius says you can’t copy something done thousands of years ago. 

        Our visit to the MMA was done after a long journey. It gave me a lot of knowledge and a good workout. The world felt brought together here and every art mixed under one roof. There will be tons of more stuff for us to explore. Even when all arts were united in a museum, the world seems bigger and bigger every second we stayed in the MMA.

【紅霞譯文】

        紐約大都會藝術博物館努力讓來訪者儘量感受到全球最美的藝術內涵，不僅渲染歐洲藝術展廳，而且還增設其它文化背景。起初我原以為投注三個鐘頭大把光陰足以遍及所到之處，然而在匆匆涉獵古希臘雕刻、泛泛瀏覽歐洲繪畫之後，才發現三分之二的良辰美景已悄然遠去，剩下的時間寥寥無幾。

        中國展廳印象深刻，蘇州古典園林不光成為大都會藝術博物館中國庭院的突出代表，更是我本人的至愛。儘管我從來、從來沒有親自領略江南風情，但身臨這座人工特製的園林之城，令我“不出城郭而獲山林之怡，身居鬧市而有林泉之樂”。園內地面全部由土磚鋪成，天花板看上去跟我在賓州光華中文學校中國歷史課上播放的圖像一模一樣，捆紮成堆的“古”竹參天，正在打禪的佛像高懸正牆中央，“留園”旁“滄浪亭”下小荷花池裡金魚悠閒自得。

        離開中國館後，我們來到隔壁日本展室，這裡所有的展品集中再現了東洋人傳統生活方式，儘管規模不及歐洲繪畫渾厚壯觀，但內部打造得短小精悍，令我耳目一新。正廳擺設精巧別致，榻榻米床與常見的完全不同，這也是為什麼我格外喜歡中日兩國東方藝術所包含的民族氣息，因為時間關係未能鑑賞到也許更接地氣的西方風俗，所以才覺得只有通過這種視覺效果才能形象地反映出一個國家的文化特徵。地板上的草蓆、低矮細長的大桌、桌邊擺放的袖珍枕頭，生動營造了日式修身養性的家庭氛圍，難怪我老覺得自己的起居方式平淡乏味，莫非因為坐久了高凳，看來不是人人追求高端大氣上檔次，低調樸實有內涵同樣倍受青睞。

        古埃及館是我們最後一站，隨身攜帶的蘋果牌多功能媒體解說器一本正經地講述象形文字，我沒聽上倆字便開起小差。當走進古墓陵地，我一點也激動不起來。大約四年前我八歲的時候，我曾訪問過開羅、亞歷山大、沙姆沙伊赫、盧克索、底比斯、阿斯旺及尼羅河畔其它地方，從聖凱瑟琳修道院、菲萊神殿、阿布辛貝神廟、雙神金廟、卡納克綜合神殿、盧克索神殿、哈索爾神廟、哈布城陵廟、卓瑟王階梯金字塔、吉薩金字塔等地度假歸來，我收穫了許多真知灼見，正因為當時實地參觀了帝王谷法老墓地，才覺得眼前展出的模型實在太…太…太現代化，毫無古老悠遠之感，圍牆石塊和象形文字均為贗品，沒法與真跡相比。老夫子說過人各有異，幾千年前的埃及古蹟確實很難復製得惟妙惟肖。

        經過辛苦跋涉，本次全部參觀行程告一段落，在增長見識的同時，我還不失時機地磨練了體魄。紐約大都會藝術博物館像一條紐帶，把世界各族同胞與藝術聯繫在一起，為我們深入了解更多更美的文化遺產開闢了一個異彩紛呈的廣闊天地。