【精英翻譯關注新聞】Taiwan Railways employees find personal ways of recording history 鐵道情深－【精英翻譯】的部落格

Taiwan Railways employees find personal ways of recording history (2014/03/16)

Taiwan Railway employees are playing an important role in preserving local railway culture. One ticket taker at Taichung’s Shalu Station has published a book and is making a documentary to record her experiences working for the railway. And a conductor has a collection of train tickets that now totals more than 100,000. Their love of the railroad means that Taiwan Railways history can be shared with future generations.

This older woman continues to take tickets at Taichung’s ShaluRailway Station.

Almost every day, Ho Su-ching’s smiling face can be seen. Despite the difficult work, she doesn’t feel that her job as a ticket taker is the least bit monotonous.

Ho Su-ching
Taiwan Railways Employee
I believe that every passenger is important. When I’m taking tickets, I feel like I’m performing a service, and society gives me a great deal in return. Whenever I’m frustrated, this duty makes me happier and optimistic. I think that my attitude can help travelers who may be in a bad mood. When I take their tickets I can offer a few words of kindness to cheer them up on their trip.

Ho is a senior railway employee who once served as a stewardess aboard the Chu-Kuang Express. She later was a train announcer then a ticket collector. For 20 years, she has seen people pass through this gate. Now she has compiled her personal interactions with passengers into a book.

Ho Su-ching
Taiwan Railways Employee
I want to record these life stories for our children and grandchildren to see. For this reason, I am very grateful to do this work. I am not sure if what I am doing is correct, but I still want to do it. Some people don’t think I should or want to pour cold water on my idea. I just smile and think that this work is worthwhile because it preserves merits and demerits for future generations to judge.

Ho did not expect to profit from publishing the book. The NT$200,000 it cost came from her personal savings. She was also inspired to spend 10 years creating a documentary about the railway. At the moment she is four years into filming and hopes the work will help preserve railway history.

Ho Su-ching
Taiwan Railways Employee
For fun I started making a documentary about the culture and people of the railway. Afterwards, I decided to travel because my children had grown, so I wanted to have a little fun. I did this until a few months ago when I had a health check that uncovered three tumors. Doctors advised that I stay at home and recuperate rather than travel. They thought it would be better for my body. But because I was sick, I decided that life shouldn’t be judged by its length but rather by its breadth.

Veteran train conductor Yang Chung-cheng is also known as a top fan of Taiwan Railways.

Yang Chung-cheng
Taiwan Railways Conductor
I entered the Taiwan Railways Administration at the end of 1983 because my father was an old employee of the railway. As a child I admired this type of life and fell in love with railway work. When I was young, I also began collecting stamps. As I grew a little older, I figured that railway tickets could also be collected.

Yang has a vast collection of tickets numbering more 100,000. They serve as memories of everyday life and have historical merit.

Yang Chung-cheng
Taiwan Railways Conductor
This is a ticket from the 50s which has a fervent anti-Communist slogan on the back. In the 60s, greater emphasis was placed on construction. By looking at this train ticket, we can understand what generation it came from.

In 1956, Taichung Railway Station developed a system to provide railway lunch boxes for passengers. This is fondly remembered by older generations.

Yang Chung-cheng
Taiwan Railways Conductor
In the Japanese colonial era they called these bento. The biggest different between bento and the rice boxes we sold on Taiwan Railways is that the Japanese were accustomed to eating cold dishes while Chinese preferred the foods to be hot. So when they were cold lunch boxes they were called bento and when Taiwan Railways made aluminum lunch boxes we called them rice boxes.

Yang’s collection demonstrates the pride and confidence of the Taiwanese people after emerging from the Japanese colonial era.

Yang Chung-cheng
Taiwan Railways Conductor
After Japan left following the war, some of their engineers cruelly said the railway would not last six months. There were supply shortages, they did not transfer all their technology and they took their tools. We still had some machinists and artisans who resorted to making tools out of iron. Despite these difficulties, our railway continued and has been operating for more than a century.

Construction of Taiwan’s railway began in the Qing dynasty under Liu Ming-chuan. It has accumulated more than a hundred years of history and accompanied the nation’s development. In the process, it has witnessed the memories of many generations.

鐵道情深

除了鐵路工業文化的保存外，鐵路員工，也是鐵路文化的重要資產。帶您認識在台中沙鹿站擔任剪票員的何素青。她在台鐵服務了超過三十年，就因為對工作的熱忱，她持續寫下她和旅客之間的點點滴滴，甚至自掏腰包二十萬元出書，她更發願，要花十年的時間，用自己的攝影機為台鐵寫下紀錄。另外，還有一位擔任列車長的楊忠誠，他則是蒐集了從清朝到現在，大約十萬張的火車票。從他們的故事，讓我們來看看台灣鐵路的魅力以及未來。

台中的沙鹿火車站，有位阿匹婆。

每天在沙鹿火車站，都會看到笑臉迎人的何素青，用手中的剪票夾來看人生。每天收票剪票，一般人眼中極度無聊的工作，她說這是一種福報。

[[台鐵沙鹿站剪票員何素青]]
“其實旅客他每一個都是我人生的貴人，我覺得說其實我今天在剪票，我只是在做我的服務工作而已，可是透過這個服務工作，我得到了社會上很多良善的資源，而那些資源，讓我每次在人生比較沮喪的時候，都能夠讓我想到樂觀開心的一面，然後我也藉著這個剪票鉗，在幫助很多比較沮喪的旅客，當他們心情很不好的時候，來剪票來坐車，透過剪票的動作，我可以跟他適時的安慰幾句”

何素青是鐵路局的資深員工，從當年的莒光號列車小姐，車站播音員，到現在的剪票員，這二十幾年來何素青，將歷年來在剪票口看到的人生，寫成一篇篇的故事，在今年集結成冊。

[[台鐵沙鹿站剪票員何素青]]
我想為更多人保留他的人生，給我們的子孫看，所以我一直很感恩做這些事，我也不知道說，我這樣的執著是對不對，可是我就是要做，然後有些人不贊同，我
真的是有時候也會給我潑冷水，可是我都會笑笑的，因為我覺得說功過留待後人去說”

何素青並沒有因為出書而獲益，反而因為出書，花了自己的積蓄二十萬。她還發願要花十年，再拍出一支鐵道人文紀錄片，目前她的紀錄片已經拍了四年多了，希望能為鐵道留下多一點的記憶。

[[台鐵沙鹿站剪票員何素青]]
“我剛開始是玩票的性質，要拍鐵路人文紀錄片，然後常常有時候會東奔西跑的，那家裡人想說小孩子也大了，讓我有點樂趣，所以就讓我去跑，一直到我前幾個月，我身上體檢的時候，檢驗出有三個腫瘤，有了腫瘤以後，他們就叫我不要再這樣做，他們覺得說一個女人，好好地安份守己在家裡養病就好了，而且就是不要再這樣跑，也許對我的身體會有一點幫助，可是就是因為我生病了，我才更覺得說，人生不要去在乎它的長度，要在乎它的寬度”

楊忠誠是資深的列車長，號稱頭號鐵道迷。

[[台鐵彰化車班列車長楊忠誠]]
“七十二年底進鐵路局的，因為家父以前也是鐵路局的老員工，那小時候就看他在這個圈子活動，就對鐵路的工作產生非常的熱愛，對於這些收藏，因為小時候有收集郵票的一個興趣，等到大一點的時候，就發現說郵票可以收藏，那車票也可以收藏”

楊忠誠手上有各式各樣的車票，超過十萬張，這都是當年台灣生活的記憶，這些歷史記憶都由車票傳承了下來。

[[台鐵彰化車班列車長楊忠誠]]
“那在五○年代的車票，它的後面的反共的標語，就比較慷慨激昂，到六○年代，就比較重視台灣的一個建設，我們大概可以了解到，它這個車票出來的年代，大概是在什麼時候”

民國四十五年，由台中火車站研發出來的鐵路便當，相信現在的中生代們一定記憶猶新。

[[台鐵彰化車班列車長楊忠誠]]
“早期在日據時代，他們的這個叫做便當，便當跟我們台鐵的這個飯盒，最大的差別就是，因為日本人他們飲食習慣是冷食，我們中國人的飲食習慣喜歡用熱食，冷食跟熱食之間有一個很大的差別，他們冷食的時候叫便當，當台鐵推出這個鋁製的一個便當的時候，我們就叫它飯盒”

他的收藏中，也見證了台灣人，脫離日治時代時的信心與驕傲。

[[台鐵彰化車班列車長楊忠誠]]
‘日本戰後要撤退的時候，他們當時的工程人員，就撂下一句狠話說，台鐵撐不過六個月，所以說在當時物資很缺乏，技術也沒有完全轉移的狀況之下，他們的師父要走的時候，又把他們的工具統統帶走，他們走了之後，我們當時的一些機械師傅，一些工匠他們找不到工具，他們就以很克難的方式，以生鐵來鑄造打造這樣的工具，來作為維修火車之用，其實到現在我們台鐵，還是一百多年來，
還是維持這樣很正常的一個營運狀態”

台灣鐵道從清代劉銘傳興建開始，已有一百多年的歷史，鐵道隨著台灣一同發展，
也見證了台灣各年代的生活與記憶。