(C) Global Voices This story was originally published by Global Voices and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Polish-Taiwanese cultural bridges: An interview with translator Wei-Yun Lin-Górecka [1] ['Filip Noubel'] Date: 2024-06-18 Taiwan and Poland are distant not just geographically but also culturally, yet they share a long history of bilateral cultural relations that is little known outside of the circle of researchers and experts on the subject. One of them is Wei-Yun Lin-Górecka (林蔚昀), a Taiwanese literary translator of Polish literature, who is also a researcher, poet, and writer and is the first Taiwanese to have been awarded the Polish Cultural Merit Medal by the Polish Ministry of Culture. She recently released a new non-fiction book “世界之鑰” (“The Keys of the World”) in which she covers Taiwan-Polish cultural history. Following several meetings in Taipei, Global Voices interviewed her in Chinese over email to find out more about this very peculiar cultural bridge. Filip Noubel (FN): How did you get interested in Poland and its language? Wei-Yun Lin-Górecka (WYLG) Around 2000, I was studying in Edinburgh, and one day I saw a shop selling Polish posters, walked in… and became deeply attracted by Polish posters, especially those by Wiktor Sadowski. Although I couldn’t understand a word of Polish at the time, I decided that one day I must visit Poland. Later, I began to read Polish literature, including Witkacy‘s “Kurka wodna” (The Water Duck) and Witold Gombrowicz’s “Iwona, księżniczka Burgunda” (Iwona, Princess of Burgundy), Tadeusz Różewicz‘s poems… When I read Bruno Schulz, I decided to go to Poland to learn Polish, and that one day, I would translate his works. Later, I actually translated his “Sklepy cynamonowe” (“The Cinnamon Shops”, published in Taiwan under the title “Ulica krokodyli” – “The Street of Crocodiles”) and “Sanatorium pod klepsydrą” (“Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass” ), which were published in 2012 and 2014 respectively. For more than ten years, I have continued to translate Polish literature. FN: Poles have been writing about Taiwan, which was known under the Portuguese name Formosa since the 17th century. In your book, you identify dozens of locations called “Tajwan” or “Formoza”, as they are known in Polish, that are associated with locations that are remote or connected to water. Why is that? 林蔚昀： 波蘭的「台灣」和「福爾摩沙」之所以叫做「台灣」和「福爾摩沙」，和一九五○年代全球性的歷史事件如韓戰、國共內戰息息相關。當時，國共內戰在波蘭人民共和國被大幅報導，人們經常在報紙上看到，在電台上聽到台灣（通常是「美帝傀儡」、「蔣介石最後浮木」、「中共要解放台灣」這一類的），對台灣這個名字有印象，於是開始用「台灣」來稱呼他們周遭環境中的事物，通常是長得像座島（或真的是座島，在海上、湖中，或是下雨的時候與世隔絕）、遠離中心、很窮（戰後台灣在波蘭人心目中很窮苦，當時台灣也確實很窮苦）、治安不好的地方。但是我有去統計、研究過，這些地方多半還是因為「遠離中心」才被稱為台灣，即使是那些被認為是因為「混亂」和「貧窮」所以才被稱為「台灣」的地方，一開始命名的原因也是「遠」. The reason why places in Poland are called “Tajwan” or “Formoza” is closely related to global historical events in the 1950s, such as the Korean War and the Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party. At that time, the Chinese civil war was widely covered in the People's Republic of Poland: People often saw it mentioned in newspapers, and heard on the radio about Taiwan – usually described as “a puppet of US imperialism”, or as “Chiang Kai-shek's last driftwood”, and slogans such as “the Chinese Communist Party wants to liberate Taiwan”. Thus they formed an impression of the name Taiwan, and began to use the term”Tajwan” to refer to things in their own environment that usually looked like an island, or indeed were real islands, whether on the sea, in a lake, or underwater. It then extended to places that become isolated in heavy rain weather, places located far away from the center, or very poor (in Polish mindset of the time, Taiwan was a very poor place after the civil war, and indeed it was), or unsafe. I have conducted my own research and came up with statistics showing that most of these places are still called Taiwan because they are “far away from the center.” The locations initially called “Tajwan” because of being associated to social chaos or poverty have also retained that name, but also because they are considered remote. FN: Is Poland increasingly recognizing Taiwan’s unique identity and culture? Or is Taiwan still labeled and viewed as “the other China” or “the good China”? 林蔚昀：我必須很遺憾地說，很多時候台灣依然被貼上「另一個中國」或「好中國」的標籤並被視為「好中國」⋯⋯這個現象在波蘭漢學家和波蘭國際關係學家之中，特別嚴重，而且他們的想法難以改變。不過，也開始有部分中生代和青年學者開始注意到台灣獨特的認同和文化，這是好事，但這樣的人目前還不夠多。相較之下，我反而覺得一般民眾比較好溝通。我在做地名研究的時候，訪談了波蘭四十八個地方的居民（這些地方有叫做「Tajwan」或是「Formoza」的地方），我除了問他們當地「Tajwan」和「Formoza」的由來，也有問他們對台灣知道些什麼？對台灣有什麼了解？許多人對台灣的了解很模糊，有些人一開始也會覺得台灣是「好的中國」、「民主中國」，但當我開始和他們談台灣有什麼獨特文化，台灣有什麼漂亮的山⋯⋯他們就開始對台灣有認識、有興趣。我覺得，重點是要找到共同的語言、共同感興趣的事。我希望這樣的溝通對話可以提升波蘭人對台灣的認識，甚至認同。這麼做的人也不只是我，也有許多台灣人這麼做，我們都在做國民外交。 WYLG: Unfortunately, I have to say that Taiwan is still often labeled as “the other China” or “the good China” and regarded as “the good China”… This phenomenon is a serious problem among Polish sinologists and Polish international relations scholars. It is extremely difficult to change their mindset. However, a number of middle-age and young scholars are beginning to notice Taiwan's unique identity and culture. This is a good thing, but such people are still very few. In comparison, I think the task is much easier when dealing with average Poles. When I was doing research on the names of those locations, I interviewed residents of forty-eight places in Poland (some of these places are called “Tajwan”, others “Formoza”). In addition to asking them about the origins of the local “Tajwan” and “Formoza”, I also asked them what they know about Taiwan. Many people have a vague understanding of Taiwan, and while some may indeed still think that Taiwan is “the good China” or “the democratic China” at first, yet when I start telling them about Taiwan's unique culture and beautiful mountains Taiwan, they begin to understand and become interested in Taiwan. I think the key is to find a common language and common interests. I hope that this kind of communication and dialogue can enhance Polish people’s understanding – and even recognition- of Taiwan. I am not the only one doing this, there are many Taiwanese people engaging in this kind of people’s diplomacy. FN: You are also a translator of Polish literature in Taiwan. How is Polish literature received here? [END] --- [1] Url: https://globalvoices.org/2024/06/18/polish-taiwanese-cultural-bridges-an-interview-with-translator-lin-wei-yun-gorecka/ Published and (C) by Global Voices Content appears here under this condition or license: https://globalvoices.org/about/global-voices-attribution-policy/. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/globalvoices/