海外文化流亡人士之 I M Pei

為甚麼一些在藝術或設計上具國際級水平及成就的華裔名人，都是在外國發跡的呢？定抑或不是事實，是學子的偏見呢？可是，例子卻有不少，如時裝界的Vivian Tam, 動畫界的許誠毅，建築界的貝聿銘 ... ... 等等。究竟甚麼原因令這批「海外文化流亡人士」不能在自己的地方發跡及大展拳腳呢？是隔離飯特別香？本地薑永不夠來路貨矜貴？土壤水質問題？定香港地(或內地)創作空間細，國情不同，根本沒有相關行業供有志者容身呢？

早前在香港時，到文化氣息濃厚的旺角遊玩，走進一座俗套的商場內看相機腳架。逛呀逛，發覺原來此商場不但有腳架賣，還有琳瑯滿目的「極級文化產物」，學子當時不為所動，反而走入一間賣大陸書刊雜誌的書店內。逛了兩圈，看見群書中有一個熟悉的名子 —— 貝聿銘。是一隻有關他的DVD，看了一看簡介，知道價錢屬超值，便買下了。

回英後，想在Mac中播放，才知道是6區碟，呆了！幸好之後用了一個朋友介紹的software開啟，方能成功觀看！:)


內容不多提，都是名人傳記。節錄一些語錄與大家分享。

「To me, architecture is something you do to serve a certain function. It's for people. You have to be something that somehow relates to life itself, of that particular time and place.」

「If you true to yourself, you have a signature, and the signature will come out !」

「I like to make comparison with the music of Bach, constant variations of a simple theme.」

「You have to learn to eliminate and come to the heart of the problem. You have to start from a very complex program, to reduce it to the simplest and having found the simple solution, the heart of the matter, let's say, then you have to make it work.」

「Stylistic originality is not my purpose, I want to find the originality in the time, the place and the problem.」

「I think the challenge is the problem itself. Problems are different, particularly in my case, I have the great fortune of being able to do work in many parts of the world, where the history, the traditions are very different, one from the other. Because of that, the opportunity for originality is there. You don't have to impose your own personal style. So stylistic originality is not my purpose.」

除他的成就及睇法外，有樣東西是學子十分敬重貝先生的，就是他對其妻的從一而終，不像另一設計界大師Paul Rand，結成三次婚！(差啲勁過趙世曾。)(蘭德先生乃學子其中一名敬重的啞老師。)