專研平民生活 博學多才的王笛教授熱愛鑽研歷史，特別是研究最 普通的平民百姓生活。因為平民百姓的生活更能 貼緊現實地呈現當刻的歷史背景和文化。他說：“ 平民在歷史上佔大多數，我們應該知道他們的思 想、活動、情感和經歷，就像我們坐飛機從上往下 看，看不到整個地方的細節，若把眼光向下，站在 下面，切身處地用平民的眼光去看，你是在人群之 中，從下往上看，就能貼緊人們真正的歷史。＂ 這種以觀察細小的對象為基礎的歷史稱作微觀史， 將歷史的研究從宏大敍事轉向微觀敍事，從對重大 政治、經濟、文化與社會事件的研究轉向對日常生 活、普通人物以及他們的經歷的研究，從對看似微 不足道的物件的研究來發現歷史，瞭解歷史。王教 授坦言，研究微觀史的過程十分艱辛，歷史往往 是由精英來記載的，歷史記錄中很少有對他們的記 載，所以查看檔案和資料猶如大海撈針，有時甚至 數星期才能找到一份有價值的資料，然後花幾個月 去解讀箇中的含義。所以他的《茶館》一書用了整 整十年，就一點都不奇怪了。 Focus on Ordinary People What sets Prof Wang apart from many historians is his focus on ordinary people, as he believes the lives of the masses provide the most faithful representation of society. He says, ‘Throughout history, ordinary people have always been in the majority. So we should understand their thoughts, activities, emotions, and experiences. It’s like what happens when you look down from a plane—you can’t see the details. But if you stand on the ground and look at the world with the eye of an ordinary person, then you can capture authentic history.’ This intensive historical investigation of a well-defined small unit of research is known as the microhistorical approach, which is characterised by a shift from grand narratives to micro-narratives. Instead of studying major political, economic, cultural, and social events, microhistory focuses on ordinary people and their everyday life experiences. Historical truths are discovered and understood through studies of seemingly insignificant objects. According to Prof Wang, microhistorical studies require an arduous journey. The fact that history is written by elites, with scarce records of ordinary people, makes the search for data seem like a literal attempt to find a needle in a haystack. It is not unusual for Prof Wang to spend weeks locating one piece of useful information and another several months to interpret the meaning. It is little wonder, then, that the book The Teahouse took him a full decade to complete. 成都郊區的一個茶館。牆上還留著文 化大革命的痕跡，“毛主席萬歲”的 標語清晰可見。 A teahouse in the suburbs of Chengdu. Splashed across the wall in bold letters is the slogan, ‘Long live Chairman Mao’, a reminder of the Cultural Revolution. 人物專訪 INTERVIEW umagazine issue 19 42
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