Ba Jin's First Visit to Singapore in 1927

 著名作家巴金 (1905 - 2005) ; Best-loved Chinese Writer Ba Jin

Literary figures in Singapore

Singapore has been a source of inspiration for several international literary greats over the decades.  For more than 100 years, Singapore has been kind to the travelling scribe. Many stayed at the Raffles Hotel, a home away from home for the likes of Hermann Hesse and James Michener. But, above all, Singapore played host to the literary lions of the British Empire such as Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling and Somerset Maugham.

With thanks and courtesy of Abhijit to share his blog at pressrun.net.  He said: "I love reading and writing and that’s how got into blogging. I just wanted to write and publish online. But, as time went by, I discovered a website could be a virtual library, an archive, to preserve things I had read for future reference. Memory can be flaky, but a search engine can flush out things forgotten. This is my little space on a server to write and recall, my memory aid, my bulwark against oblivion."

Mr Abhijit posted his blog "Joseph Conrad and Singapore newspapers" here .

Few friends know about other international literary figures who visit Singapore since the early days.  As Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-language and multi-cultural country, these visitors from China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and every country in the world.

With the help of  friends and resources on the Internet as "memory aids" for the research on the blog,  the following article in Chinese to share on this blog.

著名作家巴金 (1905 - 2005) 过客到新加坡。巴金是在 1927  年 1 月 15 日 离开上海到法国留学途经新加坡。他乘Angers ( 昂热  ) 号在 1927 年 1 月 24 日上午八点扺达新加坡。 由于他对新加坡这坡方的名很熟悉, 所以上岸看个究竟。 他前后只逗留八个钟头, 下午四点船即开行。 他得到一个姓陈的广东人的帮忙, 才解决了換钱的问题, 又买了两条现成的帆布西装裤, 过后还到中华书局逛逛。 巴金在《海行杂记》散文集內《新加坡》一节, 略有抒写他对新加坡的印象。他写道:

我们所经过的新加坡的街道并不怎么好, 只有初上岸时还看见几条很好的马路, 两旁有树木, 路中有印度巡捕站岗, 有电车汽车和黄包车。 中国人在这里开店铺的很不少。 印度人和马来人也有些 .....

巴金所见的新加坡与今天的新加坡当然是別之天渊了!

徐志摩途经新加坡, 期限甚暂, 不过数天。 他給新加坡的评语是 "浓得化不开"。 《浓得化不开 (新加坡) 写于 1928 年, 则徐志摩大约在这一年路过新加坡。徐志摩形容新加坡的芭蕉, 气流, 女人等, 都用 "浓得化不开" 这句话。 例如:

大雨点打上芭蕉有铜盘的声音, 怪。"红心蕉" , 多美的字面, 红得浓得好。 要紅, 要热, 要烈, 就得浓, 浓得化不开, 树胶似的才有意思 .....

气流似乎是密一点, 显得沉。一只疎荡的胳膞压在你的心窝上 .....确是有肉糜的气息, 浓得化不开 .....

可惜不曾看清她的眉目, 望去只觉得浓, 浓得化不开 .....

巴金与徐志摩都是天涯过客, 对新加坡的文学发展都沒有作出什么实际的努力, 倒是他们在中国创作的作品, 相当深远地影响了海外的读者, 曽经风摩了新加坡的读者。

With Ba Jin's beautiful and classical literary prose in Chinese with injustice translated in English at the Google -Translate site, an excerpt of the description of Ba Jin's first visit to Singapore in 1927:

Ba Jin left Shanghai on January 15, 1927 to study in France via Singapore. He boarded the ship "Angers" and arrived in Singapore on January 24, 1927 at 8:00 pm. Because he is very familiar with Singapore. He stayed for only eight hours in Singapore.

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This personal blog is dedicated to Ba Jin as a tribute to one of the best Chinese writer from the People's Republic of China.