《西夏旅館》與臺灣人悖論：「成為不是臺灣人」與「成為臺灣人」

Western Xia Hotel and the Paradox of Taiwanese Identity: “Becoming non-Taiwanese” and “Becoming Taiwanese”

駱以軍身為臺灣當代文壇最重要的作家之一，長篇小說《西夏旅館》以真實的西夏史料翻轉為虛構的臺灣社會及其成員的離散經驗與流亡心態。書中人物活在夢境、鏡像與陰影之中，承受創傷與痛苦。全書傳達主人翁圖尼克家族於國共內戰後流亡來臺的生活樣貌，自覺與臺灣社會格格不入而呈現出的邊緣人孤寂。 本研究提出三個問題。首先，筆者以變動中的族群關係為背景，探討怎樣的歷史脈絡與文化、社會、政治條件，造成「變成不是臺灣人」的後遺民發言位置以及身分認同的符號遊戲。 本研究第二個問題是書中「脫漢入胡」的思辨，漢與胡如何形成一組互相依賴對方以定義我方的流動表意鏈？漢／胡的身分之分如何成為意義多元曖昧的符號戲耍？經由這些探問，筆者提出「臺灣人悖論」的概念，用以闡釋書中不認同臺灣的人物，其實也是臺灣人。 本文第三個問題探討旅館在此書的隱喻。此書以旅館隱喻臺灣，既是流浪之途，也是家。駱以軍藉由旅館來呈現寄居、定居與流浪的變動過程，並以後遺民身分提出在地流亡的現象。 經由「流動」與「變成」的過程，作家所強調的「變成不是人」，演變為「變成不是臺灣人」，並預示下一代「成為臺灣人」，且臺灣人意義是開放流動的，並非靜止狀態。

 

Luo Yi-jun is one of the most important contemporary writers in Taiwan. His novel, Western Xia Hotel, uses real historical archives of Western Xia and transforms them into fiction of contemporary Taiwan society and its members’ experiences of diaspora and exile. Characters in this novel live in dream worlds, reflections of mirrors and shadows, indulging themselves in traumas and sufferings. Tunik, the protagonist of the novel, and his family fled mainland China after the civil war, but he constantly feels alienated from the mainstream Taiwan society and endures loneliness due to his marginalized position. This paper deals with three questions. First, the author examines under what kinds of historical, cultural, social and political circumstances, along with changing ethnic relations, this novel has proposed a post-loyalist speaking position to represent the process of “becoming non-Taiwanese.” Furthermore, this paper intends to analyze in what ways post-loyalist perspectives merge with postmodern ones to construct identity as a play of signs. The second question of this paper is to explore the dynamic interaction between “de-sinification” and “becoming barbarian.” “Han” and “Hu” are elements of binary opposition that depend on each other for definition and these two have become a chain of signifiers with ambiguous and playful meanings. The author hereby proposes the concept of the paradox of Taiwanese identity in order to illustrate the point that in this novel, those who do not identify with Taiwan are also Taiwanese. The third issue of this paper deals with the metaphor of hotel in this book. Hotel is a metaphor referring to Taiwan, a real and fictional space for home as well as the road of exile. Luo Yi-jun uses the metaphor of hotel to express the process of transformation from being a sojourner to a resident and again a traveler. Thus his writing can be regarded as adopting the speaking position of post-loyalist to describe the phenomenon of placed-based exile. Through the process of flowing and becoming, what is emphasized by the novelist as “becoming non-human” changes into “becoming non-Taiwanese.” The novel also implies the next generation will become Taiwanese, and thereby indicates the meanings of becoming Taiwanese are open and in constant flows instead of being stable and static.