帶著回憶行腳的旅人 Literary Composition: The Traveller Who Walks with Memories

In his work A Moment in Life, Mr. Hung-Tze Jan (Chairman of PChome and also a writer) wrote: “We are all travellers who carry our ‘hometowns’ with us; the foreign places you see are in fact all foreign only in contrast to your hometown.” I, a Kaohsiung native, chanced upon this sentence in a selected reading for my first-year Chinese literature course at university in Taipei. It moved me deeply when I was eighteen.

Newly arrived and darting about the streets of Taipei, every time I came to a new place I would, almost unconsciously, use everything from my hometown of Kaohsiung as a frame of reference, granting meaning to this as-yet-unfamiliar Taipei. Perhaps I was simply craving the sense of security that comes from even a small patch of familiarity. For instance, San Min Bookstore’s Fubei branch, located by Zhongshan Junior High School MRT Station, with its calm and peaceful atmosphere, seemed to transport me back to MLD Bookstore in the Shihjia area of Cianjhen, Kaohsiung, my hometown. And Miramar Entertainment Park, a shopping mall by Jiannan Road MRT Station, felt like a streamlined version of the Dream Mall in Kaohsiung, some 360 kilometres away (both malls are equipped with cinemas and Ferris wheels).

Yesterday (16 November 2025), after finishing dinner, I got on the bicycle I have ridden for more than ten years and went alone for a stroll at the MLD shopping centre near my home. Wandering aimlessly, I saw many new businesses that had moved into units which, during the summer holidays this year, had still been empty and desolate. When I saw that the unit formerly occupied by MOS Burger had, after several months of renovation, finally reopened under new management as Texas Chicken (another fast-food chain), I carefully observed the interior layout of the restaurant and then felt a sense of relief, for the overall spatial design largely followed that of its predecessor, MOS Burger: the checkout counter, dining area, waste-sorting station, the predominantly wooden décor—everything was more or less the same as before.

I continued on my way, walking towards MLD Bookstore. As I walked, Mr. Hung-Tze Jan’s words suddenly flashed through my mind: “We are all travellers who carry our ‘hometowns’ with us.” But when we are leisurely wandering in our “hometown”, what is it that we travel with? In my view: “In my hometown, I am a traveller who walks with ‘memories’.”

Roaming about in the relocated MLD Bookstore (in the second half of 2024, MLD Bookstore moved from its original 800-ping premises on the second floor down to the first floor; though now adjacent to Zhongqin Road, the shop is also much smaller in scale. The vacated second-floor space has since been taken over by a karaoke operator), I was not searching for Mr. Wen-Yong Hou’s classic work My Genius Dream, nor for Mr. Yu-Ren Wang’s recently revised edition of My Days on the Far, Far, Far Islands. Rather, I was looking for a memory—a once all-too-familiar way of life.

詹宏志先生（PChome董事長；同時也是一位作家）在其著作《人生一瞬》中寫道：「我們都是帶著『家鄉』去旅行的人，你所看到的異鄉，其實都是和家鄉對照過後的異鄉。」這是身為高雄人的我在前往臺北讀大學的第一年時偶然間於大學國文課程選文裡所讀到的文句，這段文字深深觸動時值拾捌歲的我。

初來乍到，於台北街頭跑跳，每每來到一個新的地點，我總是在不經意間以家鄉高雄的一切為座標系，為在臺北的素未謀面賦予意義，或許正是貪求那一隅的熟悉所帶來的安定。舉凡位於中山國中捷運站的三民書局復北門市，書局內的寧靜祥和彷彿使我回到了位於家鄉高雄前鎮獅甲一帶的台鋁書店。以及坐落於捷運劍南路站的購物商場──美麗華百樂園則宛若地處約360公里遠精簡版的高雄夢時代購物中心（兩座商場皆配置影城與摩天輪）。

昨日（2025年11月15日）於用完晚餐後，跨上騎了十餘年的腳踏車，隻身一人前往位於住家附近的台鋁商場散步。漫無目的的走著，看見許多新業者進駐在今年暑假期間仍是百廢待興的空據點。當我看見原先由摩斯漢堡所經營的場域，在經過多個月的裝修，總算由易主的德州小騎士（另一間速食業者）開幕後，我仔細的端詳了該店的室內佈局，乃至鬆了一口氣，因爲其整體空間設計大致上仍沿用前業者摩斯漢堡的安排，結帳櫃檯、用餐區、回收區、木質調的整體裝潢等等都與先前大同小異。

我繼續往下走著，往台鋁書店的方向前進，走著走著，腦中驀然閃現詹宏志先生的一席話：「我們都是帶著『家鄉』去旅行的人」；至於在「家鄉」悠遊漫步時，我們是帶著什麼在旅行呢？筆者認為：「在家鄉，我是帶著『回憶』行腳的旅人。」

在搬遷至一樓的台鋁書店（2024年下半年後台鋁書店由原先在2樓佔地800坪的空間，轉移陣地至1樓，雖然緊鄰忠勤路，不過店內規模也小上許多。而騰出來的2樓空間現在已由KTV業者進駐經營。）裡兜兜轉轉的我，不是在尋找侯文詠先生的經典著作《我的天才夢》，亦非在尋找苦苓老師近期新修版的作品《我在離離離島的日子》，而是在找尋一份回憶、一段過往再熟悉不過的生活。