记忆与召唤——论罗伯特·白英的中国日记写作

Memory and Recalling:On Robert Payne's Diaries in China

身兼作家、记者与学者多重身份的西方观察者白英,在他有关中国的诸多著述中,尤为值得关注的是《永恒的中国》与《觉醒的中国》两卷本日记。这两本写于1941-1946年的日记与同时期外国来华人士的日记相比,时间跨度更长,视野更开阔,其主体性自我也更为强烈。白英的自我表现为他的中国情结、悲悯情怀与诗人气质,这决定了其中国叙事充满了个人的情感温度。白英日记最富感召力的是他关于中国文化的想象与表达,其间他建构了自己心中的异国形象:一个历经战争与苦难却始终充满希望与力量的中国,一个文化与审美意义上的"永恒的中国"。白英摈弃了某些西方学者的欧洲中心主义观,客观审视东西方文化的优劣,他的立场与胸襟为当今全球化语境下的中西文化交流与对话提供了重要启示。

With a multiple identity as writer, reporter and scholar, Payne was also a western observer. In his writings about China, his two volumes of diaries Forever China and China Awake were the most significant. Compared with the diaries of other foreigners visiting China at that time, Payne＇ s diaries written from 1941 to 1946 boast of a longer time span and a more extensive horizon, as well as a stronger spirit of the subject. Payne＇ s self is expressed by his China complex, sympathy and poet temperament, thus resulting in his Chinese narrative filled with warmth of personal emotion. The most ap- pealing part of his diaries is his imagination and expression of Chinese culture. He constructed an exot- ic image of his own： a China suffering from war and hardship yet still full of hope and strength; a ＂Forever China＂ in the sense of cultural and aesthetic. Payne exceed the Eurocentrism held by some westerners, and objectively inspected the vantage and defect of Chinese and Western cultures. His standpoint and perspective are inspiring for the communication and dialogue between Chinese culture and the West in the context of globalization.