無畏的旅行

全球森林观察（ Global Forest Watch）将玻利维亚列为全球第三大原始森林破坏国，排名在巴西和民主刚果之后。在天然气价格下跌，出口收益减少之后，玻利维亚的经济发展重心就不断向农业出口偏移，农业商人们也盯上更加适合大规模农业生产的平原地带，尤其是Beni 和Santa Cruz两个省。 农业生产的扩展导致大片的亚马逊丛林被砍伐，原始森林面积不断减少。毁坏自然环境造成的恶果就是2019年亚马逊丛林大火，其中玻利维亚是重灾区。大火燃烧数月，政府和社会束手无策，直至最后天公降雨才扑灭大火。大火让气候变化的议题在这个南美内陆国迅速升温，甚至引起了政治动荡，引发全国性抗议，总统莫莱利斯下台，流亡墨西哥。 在全球热议气候变化的时候，考古学家们看到的是考古圣地正被破坏。2019年，德国考古学家Heiko Prümers带领团队在Beni的亚马逊丛林中使用机载激光雷发现隐藏在地下的巨大古城遗址群。在哥伦布发现新大陆之前，这里就是曾是大型的聚居地，面积超过5万平方公里；大小聚落相连，运河和水库网络促进农业生产（Prümers et al., 2022; Lombrado et al., 2000）。这片区域被称为摩霍人平原（Llanos de Moxos）。 波恩大学的考古学家Umberto Lombardo长期在Beni进å行考古挖掘，他说Beni到处都是考古遗址，很容易就可以捡到真正的古董，“只要支起一个屋顶，就是一个博物馆”（Graham, 2022）。 然而，由于森林砍伐和农业生产的扩张，如今地表已经被完全破坏，古代陶器变成碎片。而正是到处都是真古董，当地居民见怪不怪，没有重视。即便居民发现了一些考古遗迹，也很少会立刻报告给相关部门或者考古学家。 而且，玻利维亚政府以经济发展为首任，气候变化议题可以选择性忽略，森林继续砍，考古遗址的保护就更为次要。莫莱利斯下台之后第二年，他所领导争取的社会主义运动党的另一位人物卢乔·阿尔塞在大选中获胜，担任总统。莫莱利斯也结束一年的流亡，返回玻利维亚。如今，全国有4百万公顷的耕地以及1000头牛。政府计划到2025年，这两个数字将达到1300万公顷和1800万头。 参考资料 Prümers, H., Betancourt, C.J., Iriarte, J. et al. (2022) Lidar reveals pre-His...

Seven Star Family Residence (七星世居) is hidden among dilapidated buildings which will be soon torn down for the urban redevelopment program. Apartments built by the locals for rent will be cleared out. Striking red banners hung on the empty buildings urge the remaining house owners to sign the housing demolition contract immediately. A poster pasted on the wall states that the new regulation has been approved by the Standing Committee of the Shenzhen Municipal People's Congress. There the district government is entitled to requisition houses that do not sign the contract, on the condition that more than 95% of house owners sign the contract.  Thereafter, the region will be transformed into a commercial neighborhood. However, Seven Star Family Residence will be preserved to respect its history (Chen, 2016). Obviously, the contract rate has not yet reached 95%, still, a few people live around.   The residence was announced as an unmovable cultural relic of Longgang District in 201...

Tan Gong's statue/Yongbin Tan Gong Temple was located in Kuichong Subdistrict, Dapeng New District, east of Shenzhen. He was worshiped along with the Buddhist divinity Guanyin ( The One Who Perceives the Sounds of the World or Avalokiteśvara/in Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर ), to the left, and the Taoist divinity Taishang Laojun (The Supreme Venerable Sovereign), to the right. Tan Gong Temple/Yongbin Tan is his surname, and Gong is the honorific title, therefore, Tan Gong literally means Lord Tan. This temple was rebuilt in 2007.  From the statue of Tan Gong in his temple, we can see that he has an image as a child. According to folk legends, he was born in Huizhou Prefecture and became immortal in heaven at the age of thirteen in Nine-dragon Mountain.   He cures patients, forecasts the weather and protects sailors in the sea.   The existing record regarding Tan Gong was found as early as in Guangdong tongzhi chugao (廣東通志初稿), during the Emperor Jiajing of the Ming Dynasty (...

读书杂志是我从大学时代就开始喜欢看的，与自己对人文历史的兴趣比较契合。读到吴小安教授写的一篇《特殊的年代、特别的地方和特别的学人》，讲的就是熟悉的饶宗颐先生。熟悉并不是说我认识饶宗颐先生，只是因为同样是潮州人。他不仅仅是香港的文化符号，也是潮州的文化符号。 高中时代的三年，每天都徜徉在山顶的选堂书廊，那里有着饶先生各种字体的十八方书作。后来，潮州市在古城建立了饶宗颐学术馆，展出饶先生在各个学科领域的成就：敦煌学、甲骨学、词学、史学、目录学、楚辞学、考古学、中印关系史、西亚史、潮学……饶先生对改革开放后忙着做生意的潮州人来说，是一个巨大的激励。潮州人能选择很多人生道路，不仅能成为李嘉诚，也能成为饶宗颐。 潮州人实际上早已经不不仅仅广东省东部的潮州人或者潮汕人，而是离散在世界各地的一个族群。正如饶宗颐先生，在1949年之后，移居香港，学术足迹遍布全球各地。1962年新加坡建国之后，他旋即于次年被聘请到新加坡大学任教，参与到新加坡华人族群文化构建的历史进程中，这也是文中推荐的《上座传经事已微——饶宗颐新加坡大学执教考》所细致考察的。 饶宗颐先生的学术生涯看起来像是偶然，但似乎也是一种必然，这与1949年前潮州与南洋千丝万缕的联系是分不开的。我希望增补的另外一本书是饶先生父亲饶锷修的《潮安饶氏族谱》。饶锷不仅仅是金融家，也是一位修养极高的文人，甚至被称为“潮学研究的先行者和奠基人”。饶宗颐正是在这样的书香门第中耳濡目染成长起来的。潮州的饶氏是18世纪饶仕保从嘉应，也就是现在的梅州的松口镇迁移到潮州来的。先住在城东，后又移居城内。饶仕保的儿子饶显科在城里做起了生意，先后开了“源发”染坊和“顺发”豆店。 到了19世纪后期，饶氏已经成为潮州知名的富商大贾，他们眼里就不只是小小的潮州府了。他们带着雄厚的资本，整合潮州、梅州以及东南亚华人网络，在金融业取得成功，网点包括第二次鸦片战争后开埠的汕头，客家人下南洋第一站的松口，并且延伸至印尼雅加达、日惹、望加锡。致富的同时，家族积极获取政治和社会地位。饶宗颐先生的曾祖父饶良洵修建了祠堂，捐官封爵；祖父饶兴桐于1914年当选潮州府商会总理；父亲饶锷在1924年当选为潮安县商会公断处长。 拥有雄厚资本的饶家并不要求族人一定要走科举的“独木桥”。潮州位于帝国南疆边陲，在历史上科举成绩也并不突出，官场上更无势力，只出过一位状元林大钦。他在京城为官...

Coffee with Hakka tofu (Yongbin) Huilong Family Residence (迴龍世居) is undergoing a revamp funded by the government of Pingshan District.  I was drinking coffee in the nearby fully renovated mansion.  The spacious mansion became a fancy brand-new café with idyllic design and delicacies and attracted a bunch of young people to drop by and take photos for their social media. It can accommodate roughly 100 persons as I observed. On the ground floor, a playground for kids was designed so that mothers could leave their children to play while enjoying gossiping and relaxing from stress. The owner named the café Hakka in English and ' ke ka'  in Chinese, namely a café of Hakka. I ordered a tofu coffee which creatively combined the western beverage with tofu, a traditional Hakka aliment. When coming out of the café, I realized that its neighbor, a larger complex Huilong Family Residence was also given a makeover. A kid is enjoying the café  (Yongbin) Fancy Hakka  café ...

Devastated entrance of Chengnei Village (Yongbin) In Shenzhen, it is fairly rare to meet a real local since it is a migration city.  Chengnei Village (城內村) is situated in Kengzi Subdistrict, the east corner of Shenzhen city. Last month, Kengzi Metro Station was open and the 14th metro line finally reached the city's east end. Huiyang District of Huizhou City is adjacent to the Kengzi Subdistrict to the east. The subdistrict was historically a Hakka area of Huizhou, but it was annexed to Bao'an Country in 1958 and administrated under Shenzhen City from 1979 onward.  The village used to be a walled village called Xiushan Family Residence. It was constructed in 1794 by four brothers Huang Weiqiu(维球), Huang Weizhen(维珍), Huang Weilian(维琏) and Huang Weijin(维瑾). It was a huge residence covering 15000 square meters and a fortress, but only two gates, and some dilapidated walls made by rammed earth survive. Most of the ancient houses have been supplanted by modern buildings. Obviously,...

Xuanqing New Residence (璇庆新居) is situated in the Shabeili Village (沙背坜) in Longgang District, 40 kilometers to the northeast of Shenzhen city center. Notwithstanding the name of the village, due to the hectic urbanization of Shenzhen after the opening-up of China, most of the rural areas have been transformed into industrial areas incorporated into the fabric of the metropolis. Likewise, Shabeili Village is predominated by modern buildings and factories.   The mansion stands out for its elegant outlook combining traditional Chinese architecture and western architecture features. It was built by Qiu Man, a Malaysian Chinese who migrated from the village to British Malaya in the early nineteenth century. He worked hard as a coolie in a tin mine and was fortunately appreciated by the owner. The owner betrothed his daughter to Qiu Man.  The couple inherited the tin mine after their father passed away. Being rich, Qiu Man was not satisfied with only one spouse. Afterward, he marrie...

The conflict between clans was common in southern China. The possibility of battle was ever present in a clan-dominated area, and a permanent state of preparedness was maintained through village watches and strong walls around the clan’s territory (Baker, 1979:149).  John Scarth( 1860: 63-67 ), a British merchant traveling in Chaozhou in the late 1850s recorded that the villages were surrounded by distinct walls about sixteen to twenty feet high, and each seemed prepared to fight with its neighbor. Thomas Buoye( 2000:143 ) also states that  violence is prevalent in Chaozhou’s rural area and the overall number of homicides was much greater than in any other prefecture in Guangdong Province in the 18th century.  As the two influential clans in Chi village, the relationship between Chen and Xie was hostile. Before 1949, they banned inter-clan marriage. Moreover, battles often broke out due to some disputes including deity procession. The elders in Chi village told me about ...

All clans in Chi Village worship a group of community deities called Three Mountain Kings.  They are a group of community deities widely believed in the east of Guangdong Province.  Chi Village has formed its own sacrificial circle based on the folk religion of the Three Mountain Kings.   The belief originated from Jinshan, Mingshan and Dushan mountains in Jiexi County, a Hakka ethnic area in Chaozhou. They were originally the mountain deities of these three mountains. According to the legend, in 677, General Chen Yunguang wrote the Inscriptions on the Temple of Chaozhou Three Mountain Kings ( si Chaozhou sanshan shen ti bi 祀潮州三山神题壁) when he stationed his troop in Jiexi County.  Moreover, another historical celebrity Han Yu is also related to Three Mountain Kings. Han Yu was a Chinese essayist, poet, philosopher, and politician during the Tang dynasty. In 819 AD, he was demoted and exiled to Chaozhou because of his strong protest again Emperor Xianzong’s suppor...

I witness the change in meat consumption after the economic reform in China in the late 1970s. When I was a child, my family could only afford meat once per week.  Nevertheless, from the 1990s onward, with the rapid economic development of China and the wealth growth of the Chinese middle class, meat became more affordable, and meat consumption rocketed. The chart presents information about changes in meat consumption in China over the period 1991 to 2026. Overall, there is a dramatic surge in meat consumption from around 20 kilograms per capita to 50 kilograms per capita, showing a noticeable increase of 150 percent. At the same time, it is predicted to increase modestly up to 55 kilograms by the end of 2026. Moreover, the variety of meat markedly expanded. At the beginning of 1991, pork was predominant with more than three-quarters. Nonetheless, its percentage inclined to three-fifths in 2017. There is a significant upward trend in poultry, beef and sheep. Frozen meat is common i...