五月花修道院

 

ISBN：9789861332499

 

在 YouTube 尚未成為你我日常休閒娛樂主要媒體之前，部落格和書本是人們分享、吸收他人生活經驗的重要媒介。透過各個作者妙筆生花的文字功力，再加上讀者自行腦補、將文字轉換成畫面的想像力，在那個年代，即便是異國旅遊、美食開箱或各種人生際遇，都能成為創作題材，並出版成一本本散文著作。

鄭華娟是五、六年級生耳熟能詳的詞曲創作者；除此之外，她也是一位多產的散文作家。因與德國夫婿相戀後遠嫁德國定居，便陸續將生活中的所見所聞，以及有趣的異國文化與民情，轉化成十餘本有如家庭手札般的個人作品。《五月花修道院》描寫的，則是她一時興起購買一棟百年老宅，並親手翻修入住的過程。若換成今日，這大概就是 YouTube 影音創作者會拍成三部影片供網友觀看的常見題材，再搭配家具廠商的置入性行銷，觀眾頂多花上三十分鐘便能看完。

然而，在那個以書本與文字傳遞訊息和知識的年代，這樣的內容卻足以化為近兩百頁的篇幅，集結成冊。讓讀者在書店中偶然與之相遇，再花上幾個小時慢慢翻閱，與作者一同體驗那段自己來不及參與的人生歷程。這種老派而悠閒的娛樂形式，有如泡老人茶一般，只能細細品味。 

Before YouTube became the dominant form of everyday entertainment, blogs and books were among the primary ways people shared their experiences and learned from the lives of others. Through the vivid prose of talented writers, combined with readers' own imagination that transformed words into mental images, almost anything—from overseas travel and food discoveries to the various twists and turns of life—could become the subject of a published collection of essays.

Hua-Juan Cheng was a songwriter and lyricist well known to those who grew up in Taiwan during the 1970s and 1980s. Beyond her achievements in music, she was also a prolific essayist. After falling in love with and marrying her German husband, she moved to Germany and gradually turned her observations of daily life, along with the country's unique culture and customs, into more than a dozen personal works that read like family journals. *Mayflower Abbey* tells the story of her spontaneous decision to purchase a century-old house and renovate it into a home. If the same story were told today, it would likely become a three-part YouTube series. Accompanied by a few furniture sponsorships and product placements, the entire experience could probably be consumed in less than thirty minutes.

Yet in an era when books and the written word served as the primary vehicles for sharing knowledge and stories, material like this could easily fill nearly two hundred pages and be published as a book. Readers might stumble upon it in a bookstore and spend a leisurely afternoon turning its pages, accompanying the author through a chapter of life they themselves never had the chance to experience. It was an old-fashioned and unhurried form of entertainment—one that, much like slowly brewing and savoring a pot of traditional tea, could only be fully appreciated by taking one's time.