鹿谷故事館

故事館的泡茶區，因一群青春熱情的女生的來訪而沸騰奔放，在他們的言談中夾雜著中英文，定眼一看，發現當中有一個外國的臉孔，特地禮貌性一問，原以為她來自澳洲，但不是，她是來自奧地利，因為澳洲的英文 Australia 與 奧地利英文Austria 有點相似，當場真的有點小尷尬。這位奧地利的外國朋友叫Anita，她因其中一位台灣朋友而來這邊旅遊。而這群女生，可說是台灣的科學菁英，多是主修物理的碩博士生，想起學生時期對物理的無感且束手無策的回憶，不禁對她們肅然起敬。

In the brewing tea area of hostel, the visit of a group of energetic young girls heated up the atmosphere. During their conversation, I heard they sometimes speak in Chinese and sometimes in English. I felt a little strange that I took a look at them. Then I found there was a foreigner among them. Out of politeness, I asked her “Where are you from?” After listening to her answer, I thought her answer was Australia originally, but I knew the right answer was Austria later. It made me a little be embarrassed. I mixed the two words up because their pronunciation were too similar. The foreigner is Anita. She went to traveling in Lugu because of her Taiwanese friends. As for her Taiwanese friends, they can be described as scientific elite. Most of them are master students or PhD students whose major in physics. When I think of my helpless feeling to physics during my schooldays, I cannot help respecting them.

    有朋遠方，不亦樂乎。當然要好好分享一下在地的文化。在她們入住的期間，與她們分享了當地的茶文化，以茶會友，特別讓她們知道聞名於世的凍頂烏龍茶，就是在我們的鹿谷鄉。再者以書會友，讓她們親身體驗傳統台灣的書法文化，席間難免有人會擔憂太久沒書法、或是要如何寫書法?但書法的開始其實很簡單，就是拿筆沾墨 + 在紙上揮灑 = 書法。向她們介紹不同書法的字體的不同，Anita 最喜歡草書字體，因此也拿了王羲之的草書字帖讓她臨摹，看一個金髮碧眼的外國人，提著筆在紙上寫著書法的景象，真是一種絕妙反差的調和，最後讓她們在自己的作品上，蓋著鹿谷故事館的紅色館章，及象徵烏龍圖樣的章，在白紙上寫著黑字，蓋著紅章，如台語諺語所言:「紅水、黑大方。」這樣的構圖儼然成為一幅作品，最後特別將自己寫的龍字草書送給來自遠方的Anita.

There is a saying going like this “It is such a pleasure to have friends coming from afar.” So, I think it must share our local culture with them. I talked about the local tea culture, tasting tea as meeting friends. I also mentioned that the world-famous Dong Ding Oolong tea is produced from Lugu. Moreover, I introduced them Chinese calligraphy and provided stationery for them to experience Chinese calligraphy. Inevitably, some people will feel unfamiliar with this culture and don’t know how to write. However, it is very easy to write Chinese calligraphy in the beginning. You just need to take the brush to dip in the ink, and then write anything on the paper. This is the Chinese calligraphy. Additionally, I introduced different calligraphy fonts to them. Among these different calligraphy fonts, Anita like cursive most. Therefore, I took the work from Wang-shi-jr (an outstanding Chinese calligrapher in ancient time) for her to practice by copying model calligraphic works. It was very interesting to see a blonde holding brush to write calligraphy. Finally, I gave the two stamps for them to seal their works. One stamp is engraved with Lugu Story House Backpacker Hostel, the other is with the pattern of dragon. The three colors (white paper, black words, red stamps) in their paper show people in harmonious proportion. When seeing their works, a Taiwanese saying flashed into my mind “Red is beautiful, black shows generous.” Ultimately, I gave my personal work to Anita.

   能有機會將自己家鄉的文化，特別是茶文化，與外國友人分享，真是一

項樂事；能將台灣傳統的書法文化讓外國友人體驗，更是令人歡欣，且讓她攜著在台灣體驗的產出，飄揚過海，創造出無限跨國回憶的延伸。

It is always a wonderful thing to have a chance to share local culture with foreigners, especially tea culture. Likewise, I feel cheerful that foreigner can experience Taiwanese traditional culture—calligraphy, and took her work to go back to be a souvenir of good memory in Taiwan.