The Local Consciousness of Shu Xiangcheng from The Sun Set
Hong Kong’s local writer Shu Xiangcheng has pioneered a course of local writing in Hong Kong literature that is unique to Hong Kong’s experience and composed entirely of local colours, and this has been recognised by critics. This article takes his long masterpiece The Sun Set as an example. Through his reproduction of Lingnan culture and Hong Kong’s regional features and people, we can see the picture of life with a strong Lingnan flavour sketched out by his delicate brushstrokes. From his reflections on urban expansion, we can see his “nostalgia” and “land-loving complex” with the port where he grew up, and his poetic and authentic language style, which provided valuable assets for the rise of local writers and the enrichment of Lingnan and Hong Kong literature later on. Unlike the vernacular writings of the Mainland and Taiwan in the same period, Shu Xiangcheng uses purely vernacular support to reproduce the reverse but romantic scenery of the ports at the same time when Hong Kong’s urban civilisation was progressing, in order to express his nostalgia for the disappeared ports in the expanding city, his praise for the simple folkways of the ports, and his critique of the city’s decadence and desires.
香港本土作家舒巷城开创了香港文学界独具香港经验、完全以地方色彩构成的在地书 写历程,这点已经被评论家们认可。本文以他的长篇代表作太阳下山了为例,通过他再 现的带有岭南文化和香港地域性的风物、人情的展现,看到他细腻笔触下勾勒出的带有浓 厚岭南气息的生活图景。再从他对城市扩张的思考,看到他与他成长的这片埠头的“怀 旧”情结、“恋地情结”,并且他富有诗意又地道的语言风格,为后来香港本土作家的崛 起和丰富岭南文学、香港文学都提供了宝贵财富。区别于同时期大陆和台湾的乡土创作, 舒巷城用纯粹的乡情支撑再现出同一时空香港都市文明渐进之时,埠头人性焕发的反向却 烂漫的景致,用以寄托他对城市扩建被消失的埠头的怀念、对埠头淳朴民风的赞扬、对城 市腐朽、欲望的批判。