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Title |
Imprinted Situation: The Travel Narrative of Eagle, Goodbye and A Traveler in Cambodia |
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Author |
Lin, Shu-Hui |
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Department of Taiwan Culture, Languages and Literature, National Taiwan Normal University |
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Abstract |
Travel narratives not only record what you see and hear in foreign but also bear in mind people's living situations. Through on-site experience and empathy, it triggers connections between memories, the present, and the future, and provides an opportunity to explore the meaning of travel. This paper is based on Dadravan Yi Bao's Goodbye Eagle: A Paiwan Woman's Journey to Western Tibet and Liu, Shao-hua's Cambodian Traveler was used as research materials. Because the two authors have anthropological literacy, their travel narratives all involve pain, and they observe living situations at the geographical edge of Taiwan and Asia. It is interpreted from three aspects: the position and perspective of field observation, the exploration of inner pain triggered by travel, and the ethical concern of living situations. Yi Bao depicts the living plight of Paiwan and Tibetan people through oral history or in-depth conversations from the perspective of our ethnic group. The wizard's dream is used to deepen the image of the lake and connect it to the reborn self-identity narrative of the Paiwan tribe. Traveling to Tibet uses the story of the holy lake and purification to pray for the world. The text metaphorizes the two holy lakes as the source of life and symbols of hope. Liu, Shao-Hua analyzed the causes of social disasters in Cambodia and looked at the collective historical trauma or the people's lives under the control of the political and economic system. Due to the incident of the peasant woman who wandered to Phnom Penh, her pain finally returned. She asked in the first person how the social structure of various countries caused the plight of disadvantaged groups and brewed the practical ability to set out to the world again. These two travelogues reflect the overseas experiences of Tibet and Cambodia in comparison to their hometown in Taiwan. Through field observation combined with the perspective of historical interpretation, they reflect on the value of existence through self-dialogue. Travel triggers the exploration of inner pain or collective trauma, contains the power of healing and narrative, and has ethical significance in caring for the suffering of others and the world. |
