一座城与一片记忆

在小说《麻雀》的创作谈《我愿意是一只麻雀》里，海飞如此深情地述说着他对上海的少年回忆。因为是上海知青的儿女，少年海飞在上海度过了他大部分的假日时光。那些属于少年的回忆，充满着来自四面八方的土语方言，苏州河上运货的柴油驳船轰轰驶过，外滩与弄堂里升腾着日常的烟火气息。从20世纪80年代的上海走来的少年海飞，在进入中年的写作中，突然将记忆切进民国的时间碎片，在想象中还原民国沪上的谍战风云。在知青作家一代把知青经历付诸文字的时候，大概不会想到他们的子女会以这样一种历史想象的方式回到他们父母生长的都市。这是历史还是记忆，或者想象，抑或是将历史、记忆、想象重组，另成一种纺织城市史的方式？

海飞的文学创作是从被称为“丹桂房”的浙江诸暨某个小村庄开始的，那里沉淀着他生命的密码。然而在以飞腾地写尽丹桂房的想象缠绵之后，海飞转向留在他血缘里的另一个城市——上海。也许每年假日的沪上小住，使他对这个城市既熟悉又陌生。他承认这个城市的烟火气他以为懂了，然而并没有进入。正因为是小住，他才得以自由地想象这个城市曾经的“浪奔、浪流”。在谍战小说已然蔚为大观、形成其独特的类型与模式时，海飞的《麻雀》在类型之中更沉潜了城市与记忆的另一种风情。《麻雀》里的陈深、李小男都不那么像革命者，他们贪恋生活的烟火情欲，在喧嚣的日常中咋咋呼呼，跳舞、唱歌、吃饭、喝咖啡、吸着同一品牌的香烟，换上一件又一件旗袍演戏，同时也传递情报，有逮捕与被捕。他们一般地爱恨交加，一般地胆小怯懦，看起来很软弱，骨子里很执着。也许这是谍战小说的套路，到最后，总是那个最不像革命者的才是革命者。但更大的可能是革命者并没有什么神圣的光环，而是沉在日常生活里最平凡的你我他。这样一种还原，反而使我们接近了更大可能的历史记忆。而海飞将谍战的空间置放在少年时的上海，则有着更大的复活历史的野心。《麻雀》里的历史想象与记忆纷至沓来，在虚构的故事里穿插了许多旧上海的光影记录。既有极具政治性的极司菲尔路76号、基督教鸿德堂、徐家汇大教堂、淞沪抗战、上海解放的照片，也有极具日常性的沙逊大厦、大世界、九星大戏院、与荣顺馆齐名的旧上海一品香菜馆、小金鼠香烟的广告和周璇的照片，更有说不清是政治还是日常的风情上海：外滩、苏州河、杨树浦发电厂的厂房与烟囱……甚至编织在虚构人物与故事里的真实历史：汪精卫与东条英机、丁默邨与李士群的合影，戴笠、傅筱庵的照片等。这些曾经十分典型的上海景观，如今已经急速消逝，需要细心搜罗、整理并研究才能复现，它们已经被压扁成一张张照片、画报与历史发黄的纸页。大概不甘心这种消逝，少年海飞记忆的上海被那个看不见硝烟的上海谍战风云激活，作家海飞则在文字的飞扬中一点点还原那个交错在历史、记忆与想象中的旧上海，硬是把旗袍的青春与革命的鲜血织得如此艳丽凄美，而又燃烧着怀旧与激扬的复杂情绪。

于是，这只麻雀便带着温情，在旧上海的天空捕风而过。不必去问，它是真实还是想象。它只是一座城与一片记忆。

（本文图片由王姝、达飞欴提供）

The City and the Memory

By Wang Shu

Hai Feis parents are from Shanghai. They came to Zhuji， a rural county in Zhejiang， during the Cultural Revolution years. The little boy was born in Zhuji but spent holidays in the metropolis， watching behemoth barges rumble past on Suzhou Creek， hanging out along the Bund and exploring the labyrinth of narrow lanes.

The memory of the childhood-year Shanghai came back to haunt him when he began to write about Shanghai in his mid-age. Some like his parents went to rural areas after graduation from middle school during the Cultural Revolution and later became writers. They dont have difficulty setting stories in their home cities. Hai Fei is unlike these writers. He does not grow up in his parents birthplace. A writer may need to grow up in a place to get a full knowledge of a citys geography and emotion and sentiments and its people. Despite the lack of adequate knowledge of Shanghai， Hai Fei manages to trace the past of the city in the Republican years in his spy novels.

Hai Fei started his writers career in a small village in Zhuji. The first novels are all set in eastern Zhejiang. Then he turned to Shanghai， a city of beauty， grandeur， mystery， urban legends， seamy sides， contradictions and contrasts. The city fascinates him with possibilities for fiction. The city doesnt mind a writer writing fictions about itself. These summer and winter vacations in childhood years make the city both familiar and unknown to him. He understands the tangible things in everyday life in the city but he has never been able to call himself a native of Shanghai without a deep knowledge of the things intangible and very much alive underneath.endprint

However， Hai Fei manages to turn this want of deep knowledge to his advantage. It unexpectedly allows him to imagine freely. In his novels， the city pulsates with wild ethos and thrilling adventures. The heroes out of his imagination do not look like revolutionaries. They lead a fast life： dine and wine in ritzy restaurants， hang out in nightclubs and cafes， They drink and smoke. They look weak and cowardly. It is probably a new routine of spy novels： in the end， those who least look like revolutionaries are real spies of passion and devotion and faith.

Though the espionage thrillers are all out of the Hai Feis imagination， the city where his heroes live and spy is as real as possible. He has built a large collection of old-time Shanghai photos from old publications. Many of them are hallmarks of the Shanghai past in different historical eras： churches， factories chimneys， theaters， the Bund， restaurants， landmark buildings， Suzhou Creek. Some photos in the collection keep the historical moments： the Songhu Battle in 1937， the Liberation Day in 1949 and notorious historical figures such as Wang Jingwei and Tojo Hideki， Ding Mochun and Li Shiqun， Dai Li， Fu Xiaoan. Part of his collection is about the gilded lifestyle of the past： how a bottle wine looks like， how a cigarette brand looks like. These photos are visual anchors and ballasts of his spy thrillers. They are the wings of his imagination.

The city and the heroes in Hai Feis spy novels are both real and unreal. They all come from the authors imagination and memory of the city.endprint