看不見的生命 : 香港越南船民史 = The invisible citizens of Hong Kong : art and stories of Vietnamese boatpeople

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Organizer

香港貿易發展局、嶺南大學、康樂及文化事務署香港公共圖書館

Event Title

香港貿易發展局「文化七月，悅讀夏季」活動

Document Type

Public Seminar

Date

7-5-2014

Time

2:30 p.m. -- 4:00 p.m.

Venue

屏山天水圍公共圖書館 推廣活動室

Description

新書名為《看不見的生命：香港越南船民史》，以英文寫成，是羅教授耗時兩年，對600多幅越南船民的畫作，以及數以百計文章、詩歌及手工藝品進行廣泛研究的成果。這些作品都是由1980年代羈留於白石禁閉營的越南兒童和成年人創作的。透過解讀和分析這些作品，羅教授展示了圖像作為一種語言的表達和溝通力量，以及藝術如何在無以言狀的情況下，傳達經歷嚴重創傷後的複雜情感。

新書首先引用大量剪報、政府統計數字及年報、官方文件、政府部門及非政府組織的資料、學術論文、期刊文章、由本地及國際組織出版的書籍及報告等，全面回顧越南船民在香港的25年歷史。這項回顧除詳細追溯越南船民如何出乎意料地湧入香港，以及對本港經濟和社會造成的衝擊外，更向讀者介紹船民營裡惡劣的生活環境，以及越南船民那些難以言傳的個人傷痛。

羅教授於7月5日應香港貿易發展局邀請主持「文化七月」公開講座時表示：「越南船民在香港生活時，沒幾個香港人關心他們。傳媒往往集中報道船民營裡的混亂和暴力事件，但很少關注到那些越南船民，其實也是一個個有血有肉的人，每個人都有一段無法用言語訴說的傷痛過去。我希望讀者看完此書，可以思考我們的核心價值是甚麼，以及人文精神的可貴。這也是我在研究過程中所思考的問題。」

Prof Sophia Law, Associate Professor of Visual Studies of Lingnan University, has published a new book to tell the forgotten history of Vietnamese boatpeople in Hong Kong from 1975 to 2000.

Entitled The Invisible Citizens of Hong Kong: Art and Stories of Vietnamese Boatpeople and written in English, the new book encapsulates the outcome of two years of extensive research on some 600 drawings, as well as hundreds of articles, poems and handicrafts by Vietnamese children and adults at the Whitehead detention camp during the 1980s. By interpreting and analysing these artworks, Prof Law demonstrates the expressive and communicative power of imagery as a form of language, and illustrates how art can articulate complicated, traumatic emotions when language fails.

The book begins with a comprehensive review of the 25-year history of Vietnamese boatpeople in Hong Kong, based on an exhaustive research on news clippings, government statistics and annual reports, official documents, information from government departments and non-governmental organisations, academic theses, journal articles, books and reports published by local and international organisations. This historical review offers more than a detailed account of the unexpected influx and its economic and social impact on Hong Kong. It also draws the reader’s attention to the deplorable living conditions in the detention camps, as well as the personal, unspeakable pain of the Vietnamese boatpeople.

“Many of us barely paid any attention to the Vietnamese boatpeople when they were living in Hong Kong. Media reports often focused on the chaos and violence in the detention camps, but gave little concern to the Vietnamese people as individual human beings with a sad, unspeakable past,” said Prof Law in a public seminar on 5 July, part of the Cultural July programme at the invitation of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council. “I hope readers of this book will reflect upon what our core values are, and the significance of the humanistic spirit, just as I did when conducting the research.”

Language

Cantonese

Additional Information

Recommended Citation

羅淑敏 (2014，7月5日)。看不見的生命 : 香港越南船民史 [視頻]。檢自 http://commons.ln.edu.hk/videos/85

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