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熊兒悄聲對我說
一隻會寫字的熊、一個懂鳥語的男孩、一個熊靈魂、一支會召喚跳蚤的笛、一群大小熊，還有神祕的儀式、失落的神話……共組一部美麗感人的山林傳奇。
書中由一本筆記、兩個鳥巢開始，一步步揭出一個無人知曉的祕密童年。那裡的月亮，會帶領死去的靈魂上山；那裡的靈魂，會在夜裡展示給你森林所有的奇蹟；那裡的孩子，擁有無人能理解的天真；那裡的歲月，孤單而享受。整個故事，就在一種相信與感動中，擁抱了大自然的愛與友誼，也承受了它的寂寞與滄桑。
書中由一本筆記、兩個鳥巢開始，一步步揭出一個無人知曉的祕密童年。那裡的月亮，會帶領死去的靈魂上山；那裡的靈魂，會在夜裡展示給你森林所有的奇蹟；那裡的孩子，擁有無人能理解的天真；那裡的歲月，孤單而享受。整個故事，就在一種相信與感動中，擁抱了大自然的愛與友誼，也承受了它的寂寞與滄桑。
224 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 2007
3 people are currently reading
231 people want to read
About the author
Chang Ying-Tai
3 books2 followersChang Ying-Tai is an award-winning Taiwanese novelist and short story writer. She earned her PhD in Literature from National Taiwan University, and holds the position of Distinguished Professor at the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei.
Over the past decade, she has been the recipient of numerous major awards, including the China Times First Prize for Fiction and Prose; the United Daily Press First Prize for Fiction; the Central Daily News First Prize for Fiction; the Award for Literary Writing from the Taiwanese Ministry of Education; and the Lennox Robinson Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Arts. She has also been a finalist for the Two-Million-Yuan Award for Fiction, one of the largest monetary prizes in Asian literature.
Her works include the novels: The Bear Whispers to Me, The Zither Player of Angkor Thom, The Rose with A Thousand Faces, To All the Boys We Loved Before; and the short-story collections: My Tibetan Love, Floating Nest, and The Unstoppable Spring. In 2015, a new English-language translation of The Bear Whispers to Me was published by Balestier Press.
Over the past decade, she has been the recipient of numerous major awards, including the China Times First Prize for Fiction and Prose; the United Daily Press First Prize for Fiction; the Central Daily News First Prize for Fiction; the Award for Literary Writing from the Taiwanese Ministry of Education; and the Lennox Robinson Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Arts. She has also been a finalist for the Two-Million-Yuan Award for Fiction, one of the largest monetary prizes in Asian literature.
Her works include the novels: The Bear Whispers to Me, The Zither Player of Angkor Thom, The Rose with A Thousand Faces, To All the Boys We Loved Before; and the short-story collections: My Tibetan Love, Floating Nest, and The Unstoppable Spring. In 2015, a new English-language translation of The Bear Whispers to Me was published by Balestier Press.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
August 21, 2022
Really unsure how to rate or even approach this one! A whimsical, feverish, sad story of loss of connection to land and ethnicity due to imperialism, told through the capricious and wonder-filled eyes of a child who eventually undertakes to connect to his roots.
CONTENT WARNING:
As far as I can make out, this is the story of a man told from the POV of his son who is attempting to breathe life into his father's memories, and to reconnect with a life he was forced to leave behind after the occupation of Taiwan. It is filled with horrific stories of poverty and despair but told through the eyes of a lively, curious child who doesn't know any differently.
The result is a delighted innocent tale of tragedy that allows you to compartmentalize the trauma and see the beauty in children's play, nature, the power of imagination and simple delights.
Very glad I read this, but really unsure how to categorize it. Let's just go with I really liked it. I can't even dissect what worked or didn't--as with so many translations, it's hard to tell if what's missing is my cultural understanding or some nuance of writing.
CONTENT WARNING:
As far as I can make out, this is the story of a man told from the POV of his son who is attempting to breathe life into his father's memories, and to reconnect with a life he was forced to leave behind after the occupation of Taiwan. It is filled with horrific stories of poverty and despair but told through the eyes of a lively, curious child who doesn't know any differently.
The result is a delighted innocent tale of tragedy that allows you to compartmentalize the trauma and see the beauty in children's play, nature, the power of imagination and simple delights.
Very glad I read this, but really unsure how to categorize it. Let's just go with I really liked it. I can't even dissect what worked or didn't--as with so many translations, it's hard to tell if what's missing is my cultural understanding or some nuance of writing.
October 5, 2015
It's a lovely story with emotional circumstance. I have read the original version in Chinese. And I hope many can read this great book!
February 21, 2020
I enjoyed this book a lot. Most of all for its sense of place. Taiwan is in the news a lot, but I really do not know very much about the island. This book brought its natural elements to life through the eyes of a boy. Reading the small bits of prose in the indigenous language was also interesting, especially understanding that it is more related to the Polynesian languages. As this is a translated work I accept there were things lost to language differences, and I believe some questions/issues I had with the plot were more related to my lack of understanding of the language and culture. I do think the actual translation was excellent - the issue is that some thoughts and ideas were just not translatable.
I read to experience the world, and reading this book gave me insights into Taiwan that I would never get even by traveling there. If you also read to experience different cultures then you will likely enjoy this book.
I read to experience the world, and reading this book gave me insights into Taiwan that I would never get even by traveling there. If you also read to experience different cultures then you will likely enjoy this book.
May 5, 2015
While rummaging in the drawers of his home, a Taiwanese aboriginal boy discovers an old scrapbook that had once belonged to his father. Through stories, diary entries and drawings, the amazing story of a wild and adventurous childhood is unfurled. Dreams are fused with reality, Time takes on an illusory quality, and wisdom is hoarded and dispensed through poetic, thought-provoking proverbs:
“When a needle falls in the forest, the eagle sees it, the deer hears it and the bear smells it. The eagle, deer and bear are the eyes, ears and nose of the Celestial Spirit.”
For the boy in the scrapbook, mountainside existence is marked by poverty and innocence. While his father, Momo, attempts to eke out a living for them by baking rice flour breadmen and peddling the delicious snacks to the nearby villagers, the narrator is free to roam the forest, guided and educated by the spirit of his grandfather, long dead and now a guardian of the Celestial Spirit, a voice on the breeze, full with all the knowledge and understanding of the world. These are people inseparable from their surround. Magic is everywhere, and in everything, and the living and dead walk hand in hand.
Eating bugs, mimicking the calls of the forest birds, playing with spiders and his pet rooster, and, most of all, tracking bears, makes for an idyllic way of passing afternoons. One day, the boy finds and rescues a young bear cub snared in a trap
After several weeks spent tending to the animal's wounds, he reluctantly releases the bear again, but by then the pair have formed a deep bond, and for a long time after, he continues to leave treats in the forest, hoping that Cub will someday return.
But there are others roaming the woods, too: a friendly but simple fifteen-year-old girl named Lotus, who follows Momo around, hoping to snag a breadman and, maybe, to feel the compassion of human contact after years of living as an outcast; and a strange bear-like creature, a Frankenstein's monster, that has been skulking around the periphery of the village. The boy recognises this bear-man – who he names Kody – as the same one he'd seen caged up at the annual village fair, controlled by a wicked Kung Fu master and used as a prop to help sell 'miracle' snake oil potions to the awed crowd. These three outsiders are drawn together to form a peculiar but genuine friendship, and each gradually learns to accept their individual natures and to gain a deeper understanding of who and what they truly are.
In Ireland, the vast majority of the books we read tend to come from the English-speaking world, and it is easy to get caught up in the notion that this is where literature begins and ends. So, particularly in recent years, I've made a real effort to open my reading habits to writing in translation, and it has been a thorough joy. The world is teeming with great literature, writers from every continent who are pouring their hearts and deepest dreams and concerns onto the page, and to ignore or overlook them is to miss out on some rich and at times spectacular colours.
Taiwan's Chang Ying-Tai is the author of four novels and three collections of short stories. 'The Bear Whispers To Me' is the first of her major works to make it into the English language, and is a striking and imaginative piece of storytelling, a kind of adult fairytale. Darryl Sterk's sensitive translation emphasises the ethereal quality of the language and allows the beautiful, descriptive prose to really shine. Fascinating in its folkloric sense of tribal ways, deeply spiritual in its philosophies and alert to ancient wisdom, this is a poignant and compelling story of lives approaching fullest bloom, a coming-of-age parable that contemplates love, loss, desire, familial bonds and, most pertinently, Man's place in, and relationship with, the natural world.
“When a needle falls in the forest, the eagle sees it, the deer hears it and the bear smells it. The eagle, deer and bear are the eyes, ears and nose of the Celestial Spirit.”
For the boy in the scrapbook, mountainside existence is marked by poverty and innocence. While his father, Momo, attempts to eke out a living for them by baking rice flour breadmen and peddling the delicious snacks to the nearby villagers, the narrator is free to roam the forest, guided and educated by the spirit of his grandfather, long dead and now a guardian of the Celestial Spirit, a voice on the breeze, full with all the knowledge and understanding of the world. These are people inseparable from their surround. Magic is everywhere, and in everything, and the living and dead walk hand in hand.
Eating bugs, mimicking the calls of the forest birds, playing with spiders and his pet rooster, and, most of all, tracking bears, makes for an idyllic way of passing afternoons. One day, the boy finds and rescues a young bear cub snared in a trap
After several weeks spent tending to the animal's wounds, he reluctantly releases the bear again, but by then the pair have formed a deep bond, and for a long time after, he continues to leave treats in the forest, hoping that Cub will someday return.
But there are others roaming the woods, too: a friendly but simple fifteen-year-old girl named Lotus, who follows Momo around, hoping to snag a breadman and, maybe, to feel the compassion of human contact after years of living as an outcast; and a strange bear-like creature, a Frankenstein's monster, that has been skulking around the periphery of the village. The boy recognises this bear-man – who he names Kody – as the same one he'd seen caged up at the annual village fair, controlled by a wicked Kung Fu master and used as a prop to help sell 'miracle' snake oil potions to the awed crowd. These three outsiders are drawn together to form a peculiar but genuine friendship, and each gradually learns to accept their individual natures and to gain a deeper understanding of who and what they truly are.
In Ireland, the vast majority of the books we read tend to come from the English-speaking world, and it is easy to get caught up in the notion that this is where literature begins and ends. So, particularly in recent years, I've made a real effort to open my reading habits to writing in translation, and it has been a thorough joy. The world is teeming with great literature, writers from every continent who are pouring their hearts and deepest dreams and concerns onto the page, and to ignore or overlook them is to miss out on some rich and at times spectacular colours.
Taiwan's Chang Ying-Tai is the author of four novels and three collections of short stories. 'The Bear Whispers To Me' is the first of her major works to make it into the English language, and is a striking and imaginative piece of storytelling, a kind of adult fairytale. Darryl Sterk's sensitive translation emphasises the ethereal quality of the language and allows the beautiful, descriptive prose to really shine. Fascinating in its folkloric sense of tribal ways, deeply spiritual in its philosophies and alert to ancient wisdom, this is a poignant and compelling story of lives approaching fullest bloom, a coming-of-age parable that contemplates love, loss, desire, familial bonds and, most pertinently, Man's place in, and relationship with, the natural world.
July 6, 2015
Review to come at a later date! Way behind on this one.
December 9, 2018
Very good book. I read it before going to Taiwan. You will love it if you like nature, Asian culture and imagination!
September 12, 2019
Mountain Village, Taiwan --SE Asia-- (1964-1997)
"The soul of the body remains, but the spirit of the mind cannot find the way home. (76)"
This novel seemed very dreamlike and slightly disconnected. If you have seen the film Big Fish (starring Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney), then you will have an idea about how this novel "feels."
Spoilers ahead.
Although the son starts the novel off, it's the son's father who is the main character. From the perspective of the son, his father was a highly imaginative, sickly little boy who lost his voice and part of his spirit when he left the mountains he played in as a boy. Through the scrapbooks his father writes (mainly pictures with captions), the son pieces together the story of his father and the childhood from which he was never able to escape from, nor return to.
I felt as though the characters went through three phases:
-Adventurous Boy, "Cub", and silly Lotus
-Investigative Boy, "Bear", Lotus as helper, The Black Bear/Monster
-Protective Boy, "Mother Bear", Lotus as mistress/secret-keeper, Kody
There were also some odd "mentoring" strangers: "Grandpa," The Bee Man, and The Herb Man; old men who all imparted knowledge about the natural world to the Boy. Was it real? How did the boy get all this knowledge if not?
Although the Boy's story seemed rather sad (there seemed to be a few times he slipped into unconsciousness and had very vivid dreams, with his father wondering where he got his fantastical ideas) and simple Lotus' story was a bit more sad, Kody's story was the worst for me. I like to believe that the last paragraph in the book indicates that some bit of humanity remained in him. I'm wondering if there was some symbolic connection between what Kody became and the Boy's decision to wear the bear pelt to distract the mob at the end. It was also sad when the son took his father (the Boy) back to his old home and everything seemed smaller and less majestic than he remembered. It was a weirdly good book.
I guess I'd recommend this book to people who enjoyed films like Big Fish and Alice in Wonderland, or any book where you're not sure if the narrator is dreaming or not.
"The soul of the body remains, but the spirit of the mind cannot find the way home. (76)"
This novel seemed very dreamlike and slightly disconnected. If you have seen the film Big Fish (starring Ewan McGregor and Albert Finney), then you will have an idea about how this novel "feels."
Spoilers ahead.
Although the son starts the novel off, it's the son's father who is the main character. From the perspective of the son, his father was a highly imaginative, sickly little boy who lost his voice and part of his spirit when he left the mountains he played in as a boy. Through the scrapbooks his father writes (mainly pictures with captions), the son pieces together the story of his father and the childhood from which he was never able to escape from, nor return to.
I felt as though the characters went through three phases:
-Adventurous Boy, "Cub", and silly Lotus
-Investigative Boy, "Bear", Lotus as helper, The Black Bear/Monster
-Protective Boy, "Mother Bear", Lotus as mistress/secret-keeper, Kody
There were also some odd "mentoring" strangers: "Grandpa," The Bee Man, and The Herb Man; old men who all imparted knowledge about the natural world to the Boy. Was it real? How did the boy get all this knowledge if not?
Although the Boy's story seemed rather sad (there seemed to be a few times he slipped into unconsciousness and had very vivid dreams, with his father wondering where he got his fantastical ideas) and simple Lotus' story was a bit more sad, Kody's story was the worst for me. I like to believe that the last paragraph in the book indicates that some bit of humanity remained in him. I'm wondering if there was some symbolic connection between what Kody became and the Boy's decision to wear the bear pelt to distract the mob at the end. It was also sad when the son took his father (the Boy) back to his old home and everything seemed smaller and less majestic than he remembered. It was a weirdly good book.
I guess I'd recommend this book to people who enjoyed films like Big Fish and Alice in Wonderland, or any book where you're not sure if the narrator is dreaming or not.
August 30, 2019
I have mixed feelings about this story. It was not quite what I expected based on the synopsis. A couple of the things which initially drew me to this book was the hope that it would be a story rich in nature and the possibility of bears (yes I love bears and stories of bears). While the story was not devoid of these things they were not pronounced as I would have thought. The bears themselves did not play much of an active role throughout the book and don’t have much of an actual presence or personality.
I also could never quite make up my mind as to weather or not I actually liked the main character. There were times when he could be down right obnoxious and off putting with periodic moments of charm and admirable behavior.
The story is beautifully written though and there are some wonderful scenes. I did enjoy the dreamlike quality and the moments when it seemed as if the lines of reality were blurred.
It was somehow not quite what I wanted it to be but it had redeeming qualities.
I also could never quite make up my mind as to weather or not I actually liked the main character. There were times when he could be down right obnoxious and off putting with periodic moments of charm and admirable behavior.
The story is beautifully written though and there are some wonderful scenes. I did enjoy the dreamlike quality and the moments when it seemed as if the lines of reality were blurred.
It was somehow not quite what I wanted it to be but it had redeeming qualities.
October 19, 2019
3.5 stars. An odd little book. There isn't much of a story as such - more a young boy's observations on the natural world he inhabits and the people and animals he encounters. I'm left feeling as if the whole book was something I dreamt. I found I couldn't read more than a chapter or two without falling asleep, which is more a comment on the dreamy style than anything.
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April 20, 2015Reviewed by Asian Review of Books
April 21, 2024
Interesting intouction to folk lore of Taiwan
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews