Mīrandus Vol.II

Roger Harris journeys to remote Tahiti, in French Polynesia, in the footsteps of the many explores, navigators, artists and actors that have woven the western fantasy of the South Seas.

跟隨前賢先哲、探險家、航海家、藝 術家和明星，樂悠遊創辦人夏羅傑踏 足遠在天邊的法屬波利尼西亞大溪 地，在南海的島上編織西方狂想曲。

TAHITI A Place of the Imagination

夢幻大溪地

Tahiti is as much a place of the imagination as it is a place on the map. The largest of the 118 islands that make up French Polynesia, it’s home to around 70 percent of its population, of whom two thirds are ethnic Polynesians. The indigenous residents descend from early travellers who are believed to have navigated outrigger canoes across thousands of kilometres of ocean to reach a paradise so remote, it is thought to be one of the last places on earth to be settled by humans. Despite the formation of a sophisticated civilisation based on kingdoms and clans, the islands seem to have woven their way into the global imagination through the incursions of an eclectic mix of remarkable foreigners, whose visits had profound effects upon residents and visitors alike.

In June 1767, the British naval officer and explorer Samuel Wallis made the first recorded visit to Tahiti by a European navigator. His ship HMS Dolphin stayed in Tahiti’s Matavai Bay for over a month and Wallis was later able to pass on useful information to the explorer Captain James Cook. Wallis narrowly beat French admiral and fellow explorer Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville, to the islands, the latter describing in his 1771 book A Voyage Around the World an “earthly

paradise where men and women lived in blissful innocence, far from the corruption of civilisation.” He characterised the Tahitians as noble savages, which no doubt influenced the romantic visions of later travellers, artists and philosophers who descended on this remote archipelago when they become disillusioned with western ways of living and thinking.

大溪地仿似在地圖上想像出來的地方，是法屬波利尼西118 個 島嶼中最大一個，佔了百分之七十人口，三分之二是土著波利 尼西亞人。試幻想，土著的祖先們從千里外扒著舷外支架獨木 舟時發現這個世外桃源，從此定居下來。島上儘管有着王國和 族群的深層文化，偏偏和洶湧闖進來的外國人，互相交織渲染 下成為夢幻世界；外來人出類拔萃，為本地人和遊客添加了深 刻烙印。

英國海軍航海家森美華萊士是史上首人踏足大溪地。1767 年 六月他乘坐皇家海洋號停泊在馬塔韋海灣一個多月，他詳細的 航海紀錄給了後來成為著名探險家的庫克船長很大方便。華萊 士僅僅較同代的法國探險家路易斯安托萬海軍上將先到大溪 地幾年，安托萬於 1771 年發表《一本環遊地球的海航日誌》中 描述：「這是世界僅有的天堂，男女幸福無知地生活着，遠離 墮落的文明。」更口口聲聲說大溪地人是高尚的野蠻人。憑此 日誌，吸引很多對西方生活模式和思想感到失落的旅行家、藝 術家和哲學家蜂擁而，尋找浪漫靈感。

Captain James Cook arrived in Tahiti in 1769, during his first global circumnavigation, to observe the transit of Venus across the sun, which occurs only every 243 years. It was an important observation that assisted in the calculation of longitude – something that would greatly facilitate global navigation. Cook’s voyages across the Pacific allowed him to map Polynesia in more detail than ever before and his contributions to geographical knowledge continued to inform scientists well into the 20th century.

Our next foreign incursion of note is by Fletcher Christian, who arrived in Tahiti in 1788 on board HMS Bounty, under its captain Lieutenant William Bligh. Their mission was to collect breadfruit plants to be taken to Jamaica and cultivated as a food source for the slaves there. The crew had to wait five months before the plants would be ready for removal and during this time they succumbed to the languid lifestyle of the residents. After departing Tahiti the next year, Christian led a group of 18 mutineers and cast Bligh and some his loyal followers adrift in a small boat. Christian returned to Tahiti to marry a princess and the mutineers, along with several other Tahitians, sailed the Bounty to Pitcairn island where they established a colony.

Another notable visitor to this idyllic archipelago was Robert Louis Stevenson, the Scottish novelist and travel writer, who arrived in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia in 1888. He describes his arrival in the first chapter of In the South Seas (1896): “The first experience can never be repeated. The first love, the first sunrise, the first South Sea island, are memories apart and touched a virginity of sense…”

庫克船長1769 年到大溪地，為了觀察243 年才出現一 次的金星跨越太陽現象而開始環球航行。其觀察能 改進日後量度和計算經度，加速發展船運。船長這次 橫渡太平洋之旅，細緻繪畫了波利尼西亞地圖，貢獻 地理常識，影響深遠及至二十世紀的科學家。

1788 年，船長威廉布萊中尉駕駛皇家邦蒂號進駐 大溪地，本為採摘麵包果送回牙買加種植作為奴隸 的糧食。為了等待麵包果成熟，大家待了五個月之久。 此期間，土著充滿活力的生活態度徹底征服眾船員。 就在離開了大溪地翌年，船員之一克里斯蒂安夥同 十八名叛變者，驅趕布萊船長和他的效忠者到一首 小船，隨海漂流。克里斯蒂安和叛變者則返回大溪 地，娶了當地公主，乘坐騎劫回來的邦蒂號，到了皮 特凱恩群島成立殖民地。

蘇格蘭大文豪小說及旅遊作家羅伯特洛易斯史蒂 文森，於1888 年到了法屬波利尼西亞馬克薩斯群 島。1896 年出版的《在南海中》首章道：「第一經驗 永不能重複，第一次鍾情，第一個日出，第一個南海 島嶼，久遠憶記觸動了感官的童貞⋯⋯」

It’s easy to imagine a similar emotion from the French artist Paul Gauguin, who first arrived in Tahiti in 1891. Intent on escaping European civilisation and “everything that is artificial and conventional”, Gauguin settled in a village and began producing his finest paintings. His 1892 masterpiece When will you Marry? sold for a record US$210 million in 2014, but his art was hardly appreciated in his lifetime. He died in French Polynesia in 1903, aged 54 and more or less in poverty. Apart from his influence on many 20th century artists and writers, Gauguin’s depictions of Tahitians continue to feed the fascination that westerners have with foreign cultures and the notion of a simple tropical lifestyle.

All of which brings us to our next foreign incursions and the seemingly never-ending legacy of the Bounty adventure. In 1920, the American writer and war hero James Norman Hall arrived in Tahiti with his friend and collaborator Charles Nordhoff. Together they wrote several successful adventure books, including Mutiny on the Bounty (1932). Hall died in 1951 in Tahiti and his grave site looks over Matavai Bay, where Captain Bligh first dropped anchor on the Bounty.

The artist Henri Matisse visited Tahiti in 1930, almost certainly following in the footsteps of Paul Gauguin. Although he later claimed that he returned from the islands “absolutely empty-handed”, over time, his memories of Tahiti fermented and his fascination with traditional Tahitian fabrics gave rise to the look and

technique of his later cut-outs. In the 1947 publication Jazz, a limited-edition art book containing prints of cut-paper collages, Matisse recalled his memories of Tahitian lagoons as “one of the seven wonders of the paradise of painters”. Jazz is considered the first great expression of the new cut-out technique and Matisse later admitted that the memories and enchantments of the sky and sea of Tahiti only returned to him 15 years later “in the form of obsessive images”.

1891年，法國後印象派大師高更率意逃離「一切守舊和人工 化」的歐洲文明而來到大溪地，能想像他如史蒂文森感到同樣 激盪。高更住在簡陋村落完成一張又一張驚世傑作，1892 年作 品 《妳何時嫁人?》，2014 年以二億一千萬美元賣出；可惜他

生時潦倒，54 歲死時不名一文。高更影響了不少二十世紀的畫 家和作家，他賦於大溪地人濃烈色彩，讓無數西方人欣羡異地 文化和傾慕單純熱帶風情。

皇家邦蒂號的幽靈帶來了揮之不去的創作泉源。1920 年美國作 家和大戰英雄何占姆士和他的朋友兼合作者羅威爾斯來到大 溪地，共同創作一系列暢銷的冒險遊記，包括1932年的《叛艦 喋血記》。何占姆士1951年於大溪地辭世，他的墓穴遠眺馬塔 韋海灣，正是布萊船長的邦蒂號曾經拋錨的地方。

畫家馬蒂斯追循高更軌蹟，1930 年踏足大溪地。儘管他離開後 曾強調「空手而回」，但時間證明大溪地情愫一直在他的作品 中發酵。大溪地獨特布裁設計啟迪他的剪貼創作，特別是1947 年印刷的限量版拼貼藝術品《爵士》。馬蒂斯回憶大溪地的湖 泊是「畫家創作七大天堂泉源之一」，《爵士》更被後世公認為 新剪貼技巧首創作品。十五年後，馬蒂斯終於承認大溪地的天 空和海洋，烙印其腦海成為「戀戀不忘的形象」。

The actor Marlon Brando arrived in Tahiti in 1961 to star as Fletcher Christian in the MGM movie Mutiny on the Bounty. He fell in love with both the location and his co-star, Tarita Teri’ipaia, the French Polynesian actress who played the role of Fletcher Christian’s princess and who became Brando’s third wife. Brando purchased the small islands that make up the Teti’aroa atoll, a traditional playground for Tahitian chiefs, and built a small village to live in and to entertain his friends, while also inviting scientists to study the ecology and archaeology of the area.

In his later life, he spent less time there, but his wife continued to operate the village as a modest hotel for more than 25 years. Following Brando’s death in 2004,

development began on The Brando, a luxury eco-resort and research centre where US President Barack Obama wrote his memoirs. The resort espouses an opulent but simplistic experience as a retreat from the tensions of modern city life; exactly what attracted Brando.

From Wallis to Obama, Tahiti’s image to the rest of the world has been fashioned by outsiders into that of a remote paradise, with a relaxed and sensual culture offering an idyllic return to nature as an alternative to the rigours of modern urban life. The reality is not far from this vision. Being part of France, and with tourism as the principal industry, Tahiti makes it easy for visitors to find what they have come to expect. There’s no denying the beauty of the islands and the magical underwater environment as well as the natural Polynesian friendliness of the residents. Tahiti remains a place of the imagination that easily turns its seductive charms onto modern-day visitors just as it has done throughout history.

影帝馬龍白蘭度1961年來到大溪地，飾演美高梅電影《叛艦喋 血記》的弗萊切克里斯蒂安；戲假情真，馬龍白蘭度竟愛上大 溪地，也戀上電影女主角，有中國血統的波利尼西亞十九歲美 少女泰麗塔特里派亞，成為他的第三妻子。白蘭度買了一個傳 統用作大溪地酋長嬉戲的蒂蒂若瓦環礁小島，改建成小村莊 作自住和招呼親朋戚友度假之用，亦邀請科學家來考古研探 當地生態。

1972 年影帝和公主離婚，少了逗留大溪地，公主則繼續經營島 上酒店超過二十五年，直到白蘭度 2004 年過世，才改建成白蘭 度度假酒店 The Brando，亦成為環保研究中心，美國前總統 奧巴馬曾入住撰寫回憶錄。度假村簡樸設計，成為城市人退修 避靜好地方，難怪當年白蘭度對小島一見傾情。

由華萊士到奧巴馬，大溪地於世人印象都是外來人將時髦引進 荒遠天堂，讓摩登繁瑣的城市生涯，回歸詩情畫意閒適感性的 文化國度。此中有真意，作為法國屬土，以旅遊作為主要工業， 大溪地固然努力營造遊客期待的氛圍，迷人島嶼，摩幻海底， 波利尼西亞原住民自然友善；自古以來，大溪地風情，就像磁 石般吸引着紅塵旅人。