Into the Mountains, for a Different Scenery
Kuo Yen-Jen's Into the Mountains of Bununs and other nature writing from Taiwan
At the end of August, a typhoon is gradually approaching on the sea. I wonder if Typhoon Hinnamnor will come eventually? It seems unlikely for now. Taiwan has not had a typhoon landed for several years (though we still had some typhoon leave by luck in some years); this is the time when I feel the impact of climate change most.
Regarding our reading club, the next meeting will be held at 10:00 am (Taipei Time) on September 24 for The Stolen Bicycle by Wu Ming-Yi. This time we will meet in person in Taipei! If you are interested, feel free to leave a comment, reply to this e-mail message or write to me at transcreation@substack.com to register by September 16.
Though I did not go hiking this summer, I enjoyed mountain climbing by books very much. This time I would like to share a book I read recently, Kuo Yen-Jen’s (郭彥仁/郭熊) Into the Mountains of Bununs (走進布農的山).
《翻譯寫作的文字風景》是中英文雙語電子報。如果只想收到中文版,請到網站右上角的「My Account」內進行操作。有任何問題都歡迎來信聯絡,請直接回覆這封 E-mail 或寫信到 transcreation@substack.com。再次感謝你的訂閱支持!
這篇文章的中文版在這裡。
I used to go hiking quite often a few years ago. There was nothing great about it, just some easy trails (and occasionally mountains under 1,500 meters in elevation), but I enjoyed hiking all the same. Probably due to this liking to outdoor activities, I started paying attention to nature writing and natural history. Even when I read novels and essays not dedicated to nature writing, the details of animals and plants would still catch my eye, and they seem to add more colors to the world depicted by the author.
In addition to Liu Ka-Shiang’s (劉克襄) prose and History of Ornithology in Taiwan (1980-1912) (台灣鳥類研究開拓史, 1842─1912) and Tam Koam-Hack’s (陳冠學) Fields in Autumn (田園之秋), what impressed me most was translated works, especially Robert MacFarlane’s Mountains of the Mind and The Old Ways (though both of them are still lying on the shelf waiting for me to finish someday...). Later, in addition to literature, I also started reading popular science books: Invisible Rainforest: The Formosa Rainforest Flora (看不見的雨林──福爾摩沙雨林植物誌) by Wang Ruimin (胖胖樹王瑞閔); The Odyssey of Taiwan’s Montane Plants (通往世界的植物:臺灣高山植物的時空旅史) by Yu Chih-Chieh (游旨价), and How Interesting! Fun Ornithology Facts (噢!原來如此 有趣的鳥類學) by Chen Hsiang-Ching (陳湘靜) and Lin Da-Li (林大利). The last three books happened to be written by Taiwanese authors; it seems now we may anticipate more nature-oriented works from writers in Taiwan.
And of course, the novel Taming the Blue Sheep (馴羊記) I read last year was also an excellent work of nature writing. Combining ethical reflection with the story-telling, the author Hsu Chen-Fu (徐振輔) portrayed various aspects of Tibet, including its history (from Princess Wencheng to the Cultural Revolution), ethnic conflicts, Buddhist culture, herdsman culture, Tibetan opera, and resource exploitation (mining and tourism). In its appendix, “Quiet Evolution—My Views on Taiwan’s Nature-Oriented Literature Publishing in Recent Years” (安靜的演化──我對近幾年台灣自然導向文學出版的看法) by Wu Ming-Yi (吳明益) offers a wonderful review of the development of Taiwan’s nature-oriented literature: writers (and readers) are no longer satisfied with the traditional lyricism, and the dimension of knowledge has been highlighted; since interdisciplinary writing of art and science takes time to mellow, what we see is that such nature-oriented literature comes to “late maturity.”
Kuo Yen-Jen’s (郭彥仁/郭熊 ) Into the Mountains of Bununs (走進布農的山) is also a fruit of this development. Through years of interaction, Kuo no longer sees the mountains as a conventional mountain climber, and his human-nature relationship involves more dialogue and learning. In order to study Formosan black bears, Kuo has been in the same mountains and forests for more than ten years. He not only became familiar with the Dafen (大分) mountains, but also became friends with the local Bunun people. This solid work of more than 200 pages came from the accumulation over the decades. This is a book that makes me envy, that the author has such determination and ability to stay in the mountains, and that he knows everything about the forests.
In fact, I bought the book because of a TV show: “Island of Mountains: Believe it or not. This is Taiwan!!!” (群山之島與不去會死的他們), in which I watched Kuo hiking, who struck me as sincere and friendly. I first knew of Kuo through TV, but I did not remember him as a great talker, so I was pleasantly surprised to find his writing concise and clear, depicting the winds, waters, flora and fauna in the mountains in a vivid way.
Although Kuo studies black bears, as the whole forest is interlinked, not only is he familiar with the basics, such as traces of black bears and plants bears like to eat, he also knows almost all the animals and plants around him, summoning the forest in his mind with his words. He can also tell the name of birds by their singing and calling. He really is a naturalist.
On the first dozens of pages, the amount of information is a bit overwhelming, like being suddenly thrown into a forest that is too rich, with all the surrounding things voicing out their names. Yet following the footsteps of the guide (author) to move forward calmly and slowly, I find the names of the trees familiar little by little, and find myself gradually able to make out what birds are singing nearby.
A mori oak surrounded by giant Taiwan Douglas-firs seemed dwarfed in comparison. Not far away, a Taiwania rose from the ground, several meters higher than the huge Taiwan Douglas-firs. Forests exhibited incredible diversity. On the ground in front of me was a clump of Plagiogyria glauca [ferns] as short as 50 centimeters, yet beside it was a Taiwania over 50 meters tall, with Taiwan Douglas-firs barely matching it in height. Cork oaks, mori oaks and Taiwan crabapples were dotted among the giant trees; tongue ferns, orchids and rabbit’s foot ferns were wrapped around the large branches. (p. 56)
Just as Kuo feels going back to the forest is like going back home, I become more comfortable and relaxed as I read on, looking forward to what I will see through his eyes at the next corner (and I couldn’t help but sneak a peek from time to time at later passages and images, which are provided in addition to the text, and some are colored — a lovely surprise). My favorite passage is one that describes the wind:
I followed the path, slowly detouring from left to right down the hill. A Taiwan red pine beside me swayed slightly, and the wind swept across its needle-shaped leaves like spider silk, sometimes slow, sometimes hurried, but never stopped. The wind accelerated its fall from the top of the waterfall following the meandering stream. The wind hit the stones, pushed itself high into the sky, and after losing momentum, slowly descended from the top of the hill and permeated into the woods. The wind slid along the ridges, accelerated with the steep incline, stopped abruptly on the saddle, and, accelerating again, passed through the uniform pine forest with the beautiful sound of waves. (p. 31)
Works that qualify as nature literature should be based on such deep understanding of and sincere affections for nature. (As a beginner birder, I wonder how long it would take to reach this depth of knowledge, and I also envy that these authors — Kuo Yen-Jen, Wang Ruimin, Yu Chih-Chieh, Chen Hsiang-Ching and Lin Da-Li — were all trained in the disciplines of science. Without the systematic training in the academy, I will have to work with a lot of determination and time to acquire such profound knowledge, of ornithology and nature in general.) I do hope that their works will be translated one day,1 so that readers around the world may know of other good nature writings from Taiwan in addition to the works of Wu Ming-yi.
By the way, in the past two months, in addition to Into the Mountains of Bununs, I happened to be reading Kan Yao-Ming’s (甘耀明) Becoming Bunun (成為真正的人) at the same time. Bunun, the name by which this indigenous people in Taiwan call themselves, means “human beings.” While Kan’s novel takes on the Bunun culture more implicitly, Kuo’s writings express it more explicitly, making the two an interesting pair.
Last but not least, I would like to name a few environment-related organizations I admire:
Taiwan Environmental Information Association is raising funds for transformation into a foundation. One of the foundation’s goals is to promote land trust, which may be a way to prevent over-development of hills. They aim to raise 20 million and have already achieved more than half of it!
Wild One is dedicated to the rescue of wild animals in eastern Taiwan, where they are the only rescue resources for now. Taiwan Black Bear Conservation Association is dedicated to promoting the research and conservation of Taiwan black bears. Wild Bird Society of Taipei, which I joined recently, is devoted to rescue and conservation of wild birds in addition to promoting bird watching activities.
In reading nature-related writing and hiking in the mountains, I sometimes think about ways to contribute to environmental protection. As I could not serve as a volunteer for now, making some small donations seems a good way to express my care, and I would like to invite everyone to join the effort : )
So far only How Interesting! Fun Ornithology Facts (噢!原來如此 有趣的鳥類學) by Chen Hsiang-Ching (陳湘靜) and Lin Da-Li (林大利) has been translated, into Korean.