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Chapter 5: Metalheads/ 金屬頭

雖然年過三十之後我所聽的音樂基本上只剩下最溫文爾雅陶冶性情政治正確充滿陽光和熱情的龐克和Alt-country，但是…

1) -(最近才剛被大學麻吉提醒)十幾年前當我還在多雨水多過敏多動物的台北市某區讀書時竟然是個會把本來就已經是地下室見不到天光的出租雅房的四面牆壁全貼滿黑紙關在裡頭聽死金屬的多此一舉的難人。

2) -近十年前跑去零下的加拿大蒙特婁過春假時住到一間B&B民宿老闆是個一頭不柔順長金髮24小時唯一黑皮衣皮褲造型但一大早會很專業地問你：「要吃雞卵嗎? 幾粒? 怎煮?」從荷包蛋炒蛋蛋卷半熟溫泉蛋到水煮蛋全都能快速完美地變出來的根本重金屬廚神的勇人。

3) -五年前在馬尼拉過著鬱卒的生活時是個會在晚上跑去酒吧聽獨立金屬樂團獨立於愛國主義之外大聲幹譙菲國社會(但因為是用吼的所以在現場時其實完全聽嘸)聽別人罵完自己國家後就比較爽一點了的心理扭曲人。

這一篇和以上的1)跟2)一點關係都沒有，是3)的故事，獻給我在馬尼拉認識的一群誠實、自由、忿怒、友愛、雖然熱帶國家很熱但還是堅持穿黑色流熱汗的”金屬頭”們。

Imagine this: You are a believer of anarchism and you normally listen to political music. You come to a foreign country to teach, but you end up in a private Catholic school with a conservative administration. And, while irrational nationalism has plagued almost every corner of the world, this country you’ve come to - the Philippines - happens to be one of the places where patriotism is especially un(der)questioned, omnipresent and taken for granted. What do you do?

I made this comic story, the last chapter in <Halo-Halo Manila>, with a specific group of Manileños in mind: This is a group of mostly heavy metal and occasionally punk fans in the local music scene who call themselves “metalheads.” They also happen to be some of the most honest, unpatriotic, discontented, respectful, and friendly folks I’ve met in the Philippines. I like them that way.

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Chapter4: Trash Story/ 撿垃圾記

這篇的故事背景真的沒什麼，就是帶一群大學生去海邊撿垃圾”作一個淨灘的動作”而已。但誠如菲律賓觀光局絞盡腦漿兒想出來的廣告台詞「啥事到了菲菲就會變得特別神奇」(“It’s More Fun in the Philippines!”)，去撿個垃圾而已還真的會碰到雜七雜八莫名奇妙鬼哭神號的插曲，都講一講剛好15頁可以湊一篇正好交稿…/ The story is very simple, just me following a group of college students to a “beach cleanup”event, picking up trash at Manila Bay. But, as Philippine Department of Tourism proudly proclaims, “It’s More Fun in the Philippines,” so a trip to collect garbage ended up a trip with unexpected, weird, and even outrageous encounters.  

在藝術表現上這一篇延續小偷精神，繼上回在”馬尼拉語言學”偷了草間彌生的球球來作網點之後，這一回出現(偽)浮世繪各一頁，還有一頁是(偽)世界名畫(哪個畫?買書來自己去找啊)，可以說是偽畫集。/I can be a kleptomaniac when it comes to arts (jk). I picked Yayoi Kusama’s brain when using unusually large circles to create background shading in Chapter 3 “Manila Lingo”. Here in “Trash Story,” you can find a page that takes on a Japanese Ukiyo-e syle, and another page that’s after a world-famous 19 century painting (which one? Well, get the book and try to find out yourself. That’s where the fun is.)

雖然有時出版社或本人的寫的簡介好像很灑狗血，在視覺呈現上我其實是保守份子，真的沒辦法畫GG奶奶愛愛血血骨骨屎屎尿尿肢肢解解之類的東東，但一篇我突破了~ 這一篇賣的肉是本人最大尺度，不會再露更多(翻譯：如果要改畫A漫時我會換藝名的)/ Visually I don’t usually go for explicit content. But yeah I showed some skin in this one… sacrifice for the (f)art, sorry :~~

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Chapter3: Manila Lingo/馬尼拉語言學

這一篇是我頂著語言學博士及(前)大學叫獸的頭術，用最親民的漫畫媒介以深入淺出的方式來給各位介紹菲律賓馬尼拉的多元文化(啊啊用個正式語體用得好不蘇胡~~~)

…裡的一小部份…的一個小小的部份。In “Manila Lingo”I talk about linguistics. After all, I have a Ph.D. degree in linguistics, so I always knew I’d have to make a linguistics comic story :) Here I use examples from three local speech varieties in Manila - Tagalog, Taglish, and Filipino English - not only to showcase what I have found interesting in the culture, but also to sort of clarify some basic, scientific ideas about human language.

”馬尼拉語言學”這一篇的重點及特產有：

(1) 以菲律賓街頭小吃為例來看菲式英語的創意

(2) 然後這篇也講幾個泰加錄語(Tagalog)裡有趣的隱喻的例子。猜猜看”蝦子”被拿來比喻什麼? “湯”又被拿來比喻什麼? (我本想說猜得到的話有獎，但我不知道要送三小…。如果你還是想猜的話請私訊~)

(3) 兩個語言之間絕對不只是聲音及語法不同而已。比如說，很多人或語言教材會告訴你菲律賓泰加錄(Tagalog)語的「我愛你」是”Mahal kita”，但其實不是這麼簡單：”mahal”的字義若只用漢語的「愛」來理解就太貧乏了，而”kita”事實上既不是「我」也不是「你」。從一個語言到另一個語言間有太多東西是無法用「我的A=你的B」的對應方式來翻譯的，我個人以為所謂”語言即文化”真正重要的意涵是在這裡 (所以才要保護少數語。每失去一個語言所失去的知識體系/世界觀是絕~對~不~可~能用另一個語言解釋清楚保存下來的，文化在根本上是無法翻譯的。)(啊太可怕了一講到語言學我的學究樣就會出現@_@)。總之在這篇漫畫裡我試著解釋這一點。

(4) 這一篇裡的擬人動物出現的比例實在太高了，連怪奇物種都出現了，出版社還敢號稱這是紀實漫畫還真是有臉啊根本都被我搞砸了嘛哈哈

Contents:

(1) Words in Taglish that refer to certain “body parts” in street food! You’ll be amazed by not only the creativity but also sense of humor in Filipino culture.

(2) Metaphors in young, modern Tagalog. Guess, when they are used to describe people, what does “shrimp”refer to? How about “soup”? (Hey if you really want to guess, before reading the book, send me a personal message please.)

(3) While most Tagalog lessons tell you “Mahal kita” means “I love you,”I am telling you otherwise. I explain why the difference between cultures cannot be simplified, or reduced to, a “X in Language A = Y in Language B”one-to-one translation equation. There’s A LOT more to it. I explain why the meaning of“mahal” is more than the English word “love” can sufficiently describe, just like “kita” is, albeit a pronoun, neither “I” nor “you.”

(4) This story probably has way too many non-human animals (that are “personified” in a way) to still be considered a“non-fiction”XD

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Chapter2: Dignity on the Street/街上的尊嚴

“街上的尊嚴”從我住在馬尼拉時街上的一個朋友的故事開始 (他不是”遊民”，也非”無業”，他就在街角一個空間吃喝拉撒睡，以撿破爛和幫人修東西維生) ，講到我這輩子頭一次在生活的日常中看到橫陳在街邊的屍體的經驗：不是老死病死熱死餓死或凍死的，而是雙手被反綁在背後明顯被人行刑式處決的年輕男人的屍體。“Dignity on the Street”is about a homeless man - more accurately, a man who lives on the street corner fixing things for others - who was friendly to me when I lived in Manila, and how he ended up a life trapped in the city. This chapter also tells a horrifying experience of mine, that, as a person who had been spoiled by 1^st-world middle-class comforts growing up in Taiwan and then living in the US, I never thought I’d see a corpse - a dead man who was obviously killed by violence - on the street just outside my apartment. I did, in Manila.

雖然我個人對漫畫的口味是無論什麼題材都希望能搞笑一下，在<哈囉哈囉>的其他篇章包括政治犯、環境污染、語言學，及獨立樂團都有多少放進幽默的元素，但唯獨這一篇搞笑無理，作不到就是作不到，所以今天就寫到這裡囉。My personal taste is comedy over tragedy. I hope to be able to deal any subject with humor (and that’s why I adore R. Crumb’s and Joe Sacco’s works). But I was unable to add much of a humorous element to “Dignity on the Street”because the experiences here really weigh heavy in my heart.

什麼? 讀者們堅持要我講一點有趣的來? 好吧好吧那我就講囉(喂喂喂沒人逼你啊幹什麼自問自答)。其實”街上的尊嚴”對我還有個特別的意義：在2014年底的時候，因旅法漫畫家林莉菁的介紹及出版社幫忙報名，我有幸帶著這個故事受邀參加法國克雷蒙非杭旅行圖文手記國際大展( Rendez-vous du carnet de voyage, Clermont-Ferrand)。在當時，我已獨自一人花了三年畫一本除了編輯和太太以外沒有任何生物物種看過的漫畫，去參展終於能夠看看其他人類對我的作品的反應實在是灰熊感動，結束後有一種充滿電後再重開機的感覺非常爽快。(這…這到底有什麼有趣的呢? 要講快講啦) 但，請注意，這個展的名稱叫作”旅行圖文手記大展”，也就是說雖然也有一些其他漫畫作品，也有如歐洲老兵回憶錄之類較嚴肅的主題，展的主流是以彩色的旅行筆記圖文書為主，絕大多數來參觀的人(應該)是帶著想想下次要去哪個地方愉快旅行的心情而來的吧… 我就這樣被夾在色彩繽紛的”越南水上人家風情”“世界之都巴黎”和”巴塞隆納美食好讚啊”三個攤位之間 - 也和三位藝術家成為朋友 - 賣力推銷沮喪感加倍的馬尼拉無彩人生街上有死人喔…也未免太奇怪了吧~也未免太奇怪了吧~~也未免太奇怪了吧~~~ “Dignity on the Street”has an additional meaning to me because it brought me to my first arts convention/expo: Rendez-vous du Carnet de Voyage, in Clermont-Ferrand, France. It was Nov. 2014 and I had spent 3 years making this comic book. The only living creatures besides myself who had a remote idea of what I was doing were my editor Pei-shan and my spouse. I was creating something supposedly for others to read but I received very little feedback, so to be able to bring a finished story to a convention and meet with new readers, many of whom shared encouraging words with me, was quite something. And I made friends there, and nice train rides (!), and French food and drinks… can’t argue with that.

住在街上的朋友/My “friend on the street”telling his story

凌晨，公寓外頭傳來嘈雜聲，出代誌了/An otherwise normal morning, something terrible is about to be revealed outside of my apartment.)

克雷蒙非杭的策展人 Michel Renaud 先生是位臉上常帶著溫暖笑容的法國阿公，我在展覽期間承蒙他的照顧了，沒想到，展後才隔沒幾個月我就在關島聽聞他於巴黎<查理週報>的恐攻中喪生的消息…他不是<查理>的作者，只是那天剛好去看朋友。I made this to remember Mr. Michel Renaud, who organized the convention in Clermont-Ferrand and who took care of me when I was there. Just a few months after I came back from Clermont-Ferrand, on Jan. 7, 2015, I found his name in news among the victims of the terrorist attack on Charlie Hebdo in Paris. He was not a contributor to the controversial magazine. He was just there visiting friends…