Crayenborgh Honors College and 'A Subaqueous Loner—Syaman Rapongan'

2010年寫過一篇關於達悟族海洋文學家Syaman Rapogang（夏曼·藍波安）的文章。

這一篇文章是用英文撰寫，先收錄在2010年Crayenborgh Honors College論文集，後刊登在台灣台北利氏學社的人籟月刊上，篇名叫做："A Subaqueous Loner-Syaman Rapongan".  

之所以寫這篇文章是因為當時我仍就讀荷蘭萊登大學歷史所，經過一年學習後，被邀請上當年的Crayenborgh Honors College （Crayenborgh榮譽講座）。Crayenborgh歷史榮譽講座不對外開放，有興趣的學生無法透過申請或註冊參加，一如課堂名稱的含意，講座只開放給前一年度成績優秀的學生。講座每一年的主題都不同，同的是講師都是萊頓以外的專家、學者、作家或實業家。

上課前有咖啡早餐，中間有茶點小餅乾，課後拉到Gorte Bear酒吧享用輕食，每一週另有分配招待國外講師，和他們晚餐，上課地點更在一棟有名的十七世紀建築。

最後，一學期的課程結束後，除了要寫一篇與海洋歷史有關的文學外，還有比學位畢業典禮更有過之而無不及，在老教堂辦理的證書典禮。學生們西裝畢挺，洋裝或套裝齊出，教授們也都著教授袍出席，場子坐得很滿，很有榮譽感。

一切活生生地非常privileged，很符合萊頓大學菁英主義的特色。

2010年的榮譽講座主題是「探索海洋」(Exploring the Waters)，一學期十來堂我們都在討論和海洋有關的歷史、研究、文學與休閒活動，但也都侷限於大西洋和印度洋，害我每次都要問太平洋呢？就像他們不知道，也不太談和原住民相關的議題一樣。

於是，當我被選定為當年度論文集編輯後，我決定為當年的講座文集寫一篇關於原住民和太平洋的文章。太平洋和原住民，還有誰比「海底獨夫」夏曼·藍波安更適合呢？也就這樣生了這篇。

以下是我為「2010年Crayenborgh榮譽講座文集」另外撰寫的編輯小記："Also A Kind of Editorial Note"，文中用船當比喻，介紹每個同學的文章。想當時辛苦地熬夜編輯啊。我的指導教授（也是Crayenborgh歷史榮譽講座的創始人）說他非常喜愛（love）我寫的編輯小記和文章，也記得當時扎扎實實的開心。

寫字的報酬除了知音，還有什麼？

Also A Kind of Editorial Note

Yedda Wang

Sitting somewhere between autumn and winter when drizzle pours naughtily from the grey sky, I was quiet as usual and was watching Herengracht rippling and glistening as usual. In the midst of this sweet solitude, however, a cry suddenly broke out from afar. It was not the church bell. No, it was too long, too low, too heavy, too much grip on the heart. Instead, it seemed to have come from a vessel; that cry was signaling its approach. “It is coming, People”, the cry seemed to say, “Make way. Make way. In the name of Poseidon, do make way.”

At first, I could not make out the shape of the vessel. Expecting to see a huge liner or a fancy yacht, I waited and waited, with all the patience that I borrowed from the air. Did smoky fogs get in my eyes? Perhaps. So I only saw bits of the bow, the hull, the stern, the sail, the rig, the deck, and the something that I couldn’t even name. Nonetheless, it surprised me that I did not feel disappointed or duped at all when I only had these bits and pieces. Conversely, they excited my thought, provoked my imagination, and made me leave Victor Lieberman behind for a long while just so that I could work a beautiful ship out of them. 

Luckily, every bit and piece in spite of their different size and form was clearly marked. I therefore knew exactly who should be held responsible if ever my breakup with Lieberman should become a legal case and I should need witnesses on my side. Thus heaving a sigh of relief, I began a delicious mental exercise by the running waters. 

Marjon keeps us inside the land of windmills in her ‘The Dutch poldermodel’, opening our eyes to the communal spirit among flatlanders who have fought against evil waters for centuries and the potentials of a rather militant ‘unpoldering’ strategy to prevent the Dutch model from becoming a ‘flop’. Arjen, however, takes us upwards on major rivers like the Rhine to the heart of the European continent to search for a historical play of how merchants and cities transformed directly and indirectly the physical bodies of waters into metaphysical lifelines that proved to be essential to the survival of different settlements along the banks. Not to be outrun in travelling distance, Thomas gets on board with no hesitation and visits port cities as far as Nagasaki, Japan, so that he can show whether and how the management in European and Asiatic city ports worked to the benefit or the detriment of European traders. 

Instead of trade and trader, Casper shifts our focus to the navy and sea warfare with the British case but keeps us aware of the fact that it is yet too soon to tell the decisive instrumental value of the navy. That piece of hard nut, as he says, awaits more pressure to crack. Bringing in another drastic shift of focus, Ariel digs into the Dutch archives and offers a preliminary response to the historical debate on the nature of piracy and slave-raiding in the eighteenth century in Indonesia. Although the result favors the symbolic value of slaves, he also reminds us of the undeniable tendency to see slaves as real commodities. Be they traders, navies, pirates or slaves, Sander shows how the fluid blue water is used as a highway by different groups of people for different purposes. The amount and variety of exchanges on the waters in his story have really overshadowed the Silk Road that meanders through the heart of Eurasia. 

Daan, being the voice that cried to my solitude, takes yet another turn and explores the technological aspects that enable all kinds of movements across the ocean to realize, namely the ship and navigation skills. It is also in him that we first enter the rather silent body of water, the Pacific. Just as my mind wanders away toward the simple canoes lying on some Pacific beach, Dave and Jirsi bring me back to the exciting and expensive pastime in Europe, yachting and various forms of recreation by the sea. What an abrupt discrepancy! There lies the beauty to different tastes, a true ode to diversity. 

Speaking of taste, we now come to the human factor, to which Xiaodong pays much attention in his essay on European sailors. Their number, age, wage and origin are all his concerns; with his diligence, he helps to bring these sailors back to life. With no less effort, Cheng demonstrates how essential map-making or cartography was to early modern navigation and how the purpose behind might vary according to different situations, so would their functions. Appreciating all these bits and pieces mentioned above, I can’t help but to add one more that bears my name, Yedda. Rather than going far and wide, I restrict myself to an indigenous writer who lives on a small volcanic island; and rather than touching the tangible, I dive into the writer’s intangible past and psyche made available to me by his writing of the sea. It gives a new face to the sea, the one that speaks to one’s heart. 

Now the night is deep; it is time to retire. Yet before I retreat and leave the new model on my desk, may I be granted to make the following confession? Like any other imaginary activity, this new model is built inevitably and entirely on a personal taste. I choose the font (Arial), the size (12), and the space (single); I arrange the bits and pieces according to the order of lectures; I make the layout; and I choose the American orthography, replacing every labour with labor and so on. If by doing this, I happen to offend anyone, please believe it is never intentional. One can only do so much with one’s intention, and I have just exhausted mine. 

At last but not the least, here come a question and a plea: ‘Captain, oh, my Captain, have we all together built a beautiful ship? Has our ship deserved some space on the way?’ Make way, People, do make way. Or, at least make some room on your shelf because the Crayenborgh 2010 Essay Collection is on the way.