Writing About Asia -- Words and Prejudice

(I wrote this piece for the Hong Kong Writers Circle on-line newsletter to substitute for a panel discussion planned earlier.)

Writing about something as dynamic and diverse as Asia at this exciting juncture could be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for writers living here; but chances are most of us would miss it.

Asia is changing at an unprecedented rate, causing a historic paradigm shift yet to be understood, hence the challenge. Most people, writers included, are more comfortable with familiar patterns and hindsight than gazing into the unknown, particularly when the road to future appears chaotically revolutionary as well as hesitantly evolutionary.

When we “write about Asia”, therefore, we could be talking about a dramatically different place depending on whether it’s in the past, present, or future.

文字与偏见 —— 有关亚洲的写作



香港的英語作家聯會前陣子計劃搞個研討會，邀請我分享以亞洲為背景的寫作心得。我自問並非專家，但也臉皮厚厚地答應了。最後研討會改為線上論壇，我便借題發揮了幾句心底話。以下的中文版本歸納了英語原文的一些看法，並非譯本。


亞洲很多方面都在急劇轉變。東西南北的交流，不但史無前例地頻繁，亦較過往互動。這文化匯流所產生的旋渦其實創造了不少故事題材，是寫作人士的黃金機會。但我覺得很多文人，不論本身國籍和文化背景，都會錯過這千載良機。原因是當局者迷。大多數人身處變化時都需要時間去消化和反應。依賴熟識的一套去聯想將來，是人類的思維惰性。作家當然不例外。


外國人寫亞洲，尤其容易忽略了急速變化對一個傳統社會帶來的衝擊。亞洲的過去，現在，將來，有如脫了節的時空單元，依靠著抽象無形的文化神髓連接。外人要掌握這混亂中的微妙，需要很大的敏感度。

Calculus of Predetermination

中文版本：微積分談宿命論 

http://guo-du.blogspot.hk/2013/09/blog-post.html

Reality being increasingly counter-intuitive is not only a problem in politics. Quantum mechanics is also taking us further and further away from the neat and simple perception of reality that Homo sapiens have enjoyed for millennia. The more we think we know, the less sure we become. Perhaps it’s meant to be. 

The latest dilemma is that “Reality, Relativity, Causality, and Freewill” cannot coexist (New Scientist No.219 Vol 2928, 3 Aug 2013). One of them has to go. But which one? To me, the answer is obvious: Freewill! 

I suspect General Freewill to be an anthropocentric delusion spawned by arrogance and wishful thinking, a notion I briefly entertained fictionally in Man’s Last Song. Believe it or not, I reached this conclusion through a mathematical approach. Well, kind of.

微積分談宿命論

English Version： Calculus of Predetermination 

http://guo-du.blogspot.hk/2013/09/calculus-of-predetermination.html

量子物理學目前面對的問題與國際政治很相似。兩者都越來越 “違反常理”，與直覺 “現實” 不符，甚至不可思議。我們自以為知道得越多，就越糊塗。13年8月3號的“新科學家” （New Scientist）的一篇文章歸納得很好：現實，相對論，因果關係，和人的自主，四樣東西不能並存。要解決矛盾，必須否定其中一樣。但四個概念均被視為基本，要開除一個並不容易。

我卻認為答案很明顯：廢除自主！因為所謂自主，無非人類的自大幻覺。這點我在小說 「笙歌」（Man’s Last Song）也略略討論過。

信不信由你。我這結論其實頗有科學基礎，是按照微積分概念推斷出來的。