Nowadays, if you ask young people in Kaohsiung where they like to go, you might be surprised. Apparently the latest “in” place to go is the Zih Jhu Military Dependants’ Village in Zuoying, to stroll around looking at the wall paintings and installation art there.
Word spread on the Internet, and it is now as well known as the Rainbow Military Dependents’ Village in Greater Taichung. During the four-day Tomb Sweeping Day vacation, students flocked in from all around the country. It was estimated that there were thousands of visitors to the village every day, making it almost as popular as the Pier-2 Art Center. People joke that you won’t get lost there, and in fact you’re more likely to get stuck in traffic.
There are still people living in the village. The sound of motorcycles roaring past and the excited shouts of teenagers taking photos around the village is disturbing the locals. Angered by the noise, the residents have taken to putting up signs saying “keep the noise down or keep away.”
Photo: Ke You-hao, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者葛祐豪
All this began last summer vacation when Chung Hui-jung and Huang Hsin-ying, two graduates from Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages, came to the village and lost their way. They ran into a security guard and asked him if it were ok to paint on the walls. He told them they could paint as much as they wanted, as the place was going to be torn down anyway. And that’s how it all got started.
The two girls then brought paint and improvised. They wrote about it on their blog and on Facebook, and it gradually developed a following. Students from the nearby Kaohsiung Municipal Haicing Vocational High School of Technology and Commerce joined in and started to paint the walls in the village.
The continuous flow of youngsters may have disturbed some old people’s afternoon sleep, but it also brought unexpected business opportunities to the village’s few remaining shops. The owner of a popular shop selling crispy rolls, outside which there was a long queue of customers, said that he had never seen so many young people in the village.
(LIBERTY TIMES, TRANSLATED BY TAIJING WU)
時下年輕人最夯的高雄景點在哪?答案可能跌破一堆人眼鏡,竟是左營自助新村的牆壁彩繪與裝置藝術「眷村裡迷路」。
Photo: Ke You-hao, Liberty Times
照片:自由時報記者葛祐豪
透過網路流傳,「眷村裡迷路」最近爆紅,名氣不輸台中彩虹眷村。四天清明連假,外地的學生族群慕名而來,估計每天來往的人潮至少數千人,人氣直逼駁二藝術特區,有人揶揄說「眷村裡不會迷路,但是會塞車!」
不過,自助新村目前仍有住戶,機車呼嘯而過,加上年輕人拍照時的興奮叫鬧聲,已打擾到住戶生活,氣得開始掛起「請大家輕聲細語,違者滾出去」的抗議看板。
故事的緣起是去年暑假,文藻外語學院畢業生鍾慧蓉、黃馨瑩來到自助新村,在眷村裡迷了路,遇到當地的管區員警問說:「我們可以在這裡畫畫嗎?」員警阿莎力回答:「反正這裡要拆了,儘管畫吧!」就這樣,意外開啟這段美麗的機緣。
兩名大女孩搬來油漆,開始即興彩繪創作,透過部落格和臉書,逐漸吸引年輕人目光,隔壁海青工商學生也加入行列,在眷村牆壁上塗鴉創作。
年輕人絡繹不絕,確實影響了一些老伯伯的午睡,但也為眷村裡僅剩的幾家商店帶來意外商機,一家知名的脆皮捲餅,門口排了幾十公尺長的人龍,老闆說,從沒看過自助新村湧入這麼多年輕人。
(自由時報記者葛祐豪)
Street lights are often taken for granted until a power outage plunges the world into darkness. When that happens, the value of these lighting installations becomes evident as the world turns into a more dangerous place for pedestrians and motorists alike. The Chinese could claim to be the first to have constructed a crude type of street light. Around 500 BC, residents of Beijing employed a type of street lamp that used hollow bamboo pipes and natural gas vents to create burning torches. Later, ancient Romans adopted lamps fueled by vegetable oil, which relied on slaves to light and
A: Who else is on Billboard’s list: “The 25 greatest pop stars of the 21st Century?” B: No. 15 to 6 are: Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, Nicki Minaj, Eminem, Usher, Adele, Ariana Grande, Justin Bieber, Kanye West and Britney Spears. A: I can’t believe that Adele’s only at No. 10. B: No. 5 to 1 are: Lady Gaga, Drake, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Beyonce. A: Well, they surely deserve the honor. A: 《告示牌》雜誌的「21世紀最偉大的25位流行歌手」,還有誰上榜啊? B: 第15至6名是:麥莉希拉、大賈斯汀、妮姬米娜、阿姆、亞瑟小子、愛黛兒、亞莉安娜、小賈斯汀、肯伊威斯特、小甜甜布蘭妮。 A: 真不敢相信愛黛兒只排第10名。 B: 第5至1名是:女神卡卡、德瑞克、蕾哈娜、泰勒絲、碧昂絲。 A: 這幾位真是實至名歸! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
A: The 21st Century is now entering its 25th year. B: So Billboard has released a list: “The 25 greatest pop stars of the 21st Century.” A: Who are the greatest pop singers? B: No. 25 to 16 are: Katy Perry, Ed Sheeran, Bad Bunny, One Direction, Lil Wayne, Bruno Mars, BTS, The Weeknd, Shakira and Jay-Z. A: Wow, my favorite K-pop supergroup BTS has made it to the list. A: 21世紀正在邁入第25個年頭了。 B: 《告示牌》雜誌特別公布:「21世紀最偉大的25位流行歌手」。 A: 最偉大的歌手有哪些? B: 第25至16名是:凱蒂佩芮、紅髮艾德、壞痞兔、1世代、小韋恩、火星人布魯諾、防彈少年團(BTS)、威肯、夏奇拉、Jay-Z。 A: 哇,我最愛的韓流天團BTS也上榜了! (By Eddy Chang, Taipei Times/台北時報張聖恩)
Spoiler alert and shift blame 破梗&甩鍋 在新冠疫情期間,無論是因為封城 (lockdown) 還是居家隔離 (self-isolation at home),人們關在家中使用網路的時間大增。這也讓一些原本只存在於網路論壇的用語廣為普及。我們來談一下破梗 (spoiler alert) 與甩鍋 (shift blame) 這兩個用語。 有位古典文學教授 Joel Christensen 針對領導統御與疫情控制寫了一篇以古喻今、相當深入的文章:“Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales”,文中出現一些講法,可用來翻譯上述的流行語: In the 5th century B.C., the playwright Sophocles begins Oedipus Tyrannos with the title character struggling to identify the cause of a plague striking his city, Thebes. (Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.) (Joel Christensen, “Plagues follow bad leadership in ancient Greek tales,” The Conversation, March 12, 2020) 作者提到 Oedipus(伊底帕斯)想找出瘟疫何以降臨他的城邦的緣由,加了一句:Spoiler alert: It’s his own bad leadership.(破梗:領導無方)。Spoiler alert 就是「破梗」,如果用在有人洩漏電影劇情的情境中,也可以翻作「小心爆雷」或「劇透警告」。疫情之下,在家看影集、電影成了很多人的娛樂,但要小心劇透 (spoilers),很多 YouTube 上的影評在開頭也都會說 Spoiler alert!,警告還沒看過電影的觀眾小心爆雷、劇透。 至於「甩鍋」,源自大陸網民用語,通常意指某人犯了錯之後想推卸責任、轉移焦點、甚至讓別人背黑鍋的做法。疫情爆發後,相關網路資訊量爆增,許多中國網民也想找人為這場疫情負責,紛紛呼籲地方政府首長、地方黨書記不要「甩鍋」。 其實,在古代文學《奧德賽》中,就有「將自己的責任怪罪眾神」的說法,試用時下流行的「甩鍋」來重新翻譯: Humans are always blaming the gods for their suffering, but they experience