《邊界的故事：邊界如何決定我們的地景、記憶、身分與命運》
打書時間！*English below*
相信每個人都有屬於自己的邊界故事，可能是祖先搬遷跨越疆界終於落腳某處、可能是出國旅遊求學經歷種種簽證申請過程，可能是國與國之間的邊界、部落與部落之間的邊界，甚至是人與人之間的邊界，台灣人大概最熟悉邊界一直被侵犯的感覺ㄅ（聳肩）
又花了好幾個月的時間翻完了一本書，私心覺得原著很好看！述說了在世界各個盡頭的邊界故事，似乎很遙遠其實又跟我們每個人都息息相關，以下容我用英文murmur哈哈哈
以上，どうぞよろしくお願いします。
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Another book I translated is now out. I know my target audience is Taiwanese readers, but I just feel like writing English for some reflection this time.
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So this book is about borders, all kinds of borders, literally or figuratively, physically or mentally. And again, there were plenty of moments of synchronicity throughout the months translating it, the experience of which still always feels fascinating to me.
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Earlier in the book, a chapter talks about Sweden and this nomadic people that travel across the Scandinavian landscape (I will leave it at that). Then I was brought to the Thai-Lao border on a ‘family trip’ (shoutout to Earn Saenmuk) without me knowing where the destination was. There I was sitting by Mekong River, working on a bit of the book, and staring into the jungle across the borderline. Later, all descriptions about the Israeli West Bank Barrier came to life all of a sudden when 李彥廷 posted what he actually saw on his instastory. “Make Hummus, Not Walls” is as real as that, and at the same time, as surreal as that.
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The most significant experience among all is that I happened to get into contact with an artist working on a theme related to borders during the border book project (shoutout to Navin Rawanchaikul and Tammy Yu-Ting Hsieh). So there I was later traveling around Mae Salong, a border region in northern Thailand and learning all about those border stories, including how people migrated from Yunnan all the way into the Thai border, and especially how descendants of this KMT troupe have been living on a sort of figurative border all their lives – Taiwanese? Chinese? Yunnanese? Thai? Or whatever. I also got an opportunity to walk into the Akha village, sitting at the intersection of all kinds of possibilities when they speak Akha to elders and Mandarin to kids at home and use Thai to connect with the outside world. Not just the Akha, there are more than many Mountain Peoples living in the region, forming a beautiful and somehow exotic scene within the Thai border.
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Yet, all these stories can feel irrelevant and distant only until you actually experience it yourself. When I was to fly back from New Zealand to Bangkok just earlier this week, it cruelly struck me how the presence of borders is actually still so unshakable. I was denied onboard because I hadn’t got the required visa. Well, although it was largely due to my own negligence, I was not the only one suffering from this. My friend and her family had to go through a lot of hassles also because of the same issue, not to mention all these other people I saw undergoing the same thing in the airport too.
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Too much about my own border story, but in fact, most people in this world would have experienced their own border story in one way or another. If you haven’t, or are not sure whether you have, this book is highly recommended. Highly readable, beautiful, but also kind of sad. Well, that’s just how our world is I guess.
- The Akha village in Northern Thailand, Sep 2022
- Vacation by the Thailand-Laos border, Jul 2022
- Stayed on for another day in Queenstown because of visa issues, May 2023
- Went diving at the Thailand-Myanmar border, Mar 2023
Tammy Yu-Ting Chiang 