Translator’s Introduction
The following extract is from a wonderful book on the wild places of Hong Kong called 《咫尺山林》by Teddy Law 羅榮輝, first published in 2016 by EDGE/Roundtable Synergy Books. If you love hiking in Hong Kong and you can read Chinese, I think you’ll find it hard to resist this practical-poetical account of twenty-nine Hong Kong hiking journeys. But if you can’t read Chinese, here’s a small taste of Teddy’s take on heading off into the hills on your own. I think you’ll find he manages to distil a lot of rich thinking in a very short space.
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獨行是領略自然的一個方式。它是專注的，坦誠的，赤裸的。踏著土地，逐漸與自然融合，悄然地成為其一部分。與自然無阻隔地對話，更能讓人走進內心深處。自然讓獨行者為其景色而喜悅之際，也同時帶來撫慰，給予一個重新認識自己的機會。獨行者從自我認識中開始欣賞自己，相信自己的價值，進而發掘人生的目標與意義。對獨行者而言，這可能是在某個人生階段的機緣賦予的一把鑰匙，開啓自我尋找的大門。只是方式跟別人不同罷了。
As a way of coming to appreciate nature, solitary walking is absorbed, candid, naked. Making foot-contact with the Earth, gradually you merge with the natural world until ― without even noticing it ― there you are: part of it. This direct, unobstructed dialoguing with nature is even more conducive to finding a way into the deepest parts of a person’s inner life. At that moment when nature allows the solitary walker to take delight in its scenery, there is also then consolation and a new chance to get to know oneself. From this knowledge of self, the solitary walker begins to appreciate herself, to believe in her own value, and thus to bring to light the goals and meaning of her life. This may provide solitary walkers with a key at a particular stage in their lives, opening the gate to a self they have been searching for. We all do this: it is just that solitary walkers do it in their particular own way.
然而，社會上對獨行卻有截然不同的見解。坊間不但認為獨行不可取，甚至認為是一種不負責任的行為。傳媒報道獨行的意外事故時，論調也傾向於將獨行歸咎為主要原因，也有輿論指在事故發生後，需要浪費社會資源進行救援，而救援人員也需冒著生命危險執行拯救任務，批判獨行者往往只顧一己歡愉，而做出損人累己的行為。獨行也常予人一種孤僻的觀感。大眾可能會有一種偏見，認為獨行者都有社交或溝通上的障礙，或是一種心理失衡狀況的反顯。
However, society’s views on solitary walking are quite different. Out in the broader community, not only is solitary walking regarded as being undesirable; it is even considered to be a form of irresponsible behaviour. When hiking accidents are reported in the media, the coverage tends to attribute most of the blame to walking on one’s own. Opinion is also directed at what happens after an accident: the social resources that are wasted in rescue operations, and the risks to their own safety run by rescue personnel in carrying out such operations. Solitary walkers are criticized for generally thinking only about their personal pleasure, engaging in a form of behaviour that benefits them at the expense of others. Solitary walkers also often give people the impression that there is something gu-pik or “uncommunicative and eccentric” about them. The community may therefore nurse certain prejudices, believing that solitary walkers are lacking in basic social and/or communication skills, or that their behaviour reflects some kind of psychological imbalance.
誠然，獨行具一定程度的風險。但獨行事故的發生除了意料之外的因素，很大程度也與一些控制範圍以內的因素相關，包括遠足經驗、行程準備、路況認知、身體狀況、天氣狀況，以及遇事時的應變方法。這些老生常談的觀點，甚至是遠足最基本的考慮因素，卻往往是最容易被忽略。因為獨行最大的危機在於未能謙遜地評估風險，以及未能坦白地承認自身能力的不足。然而，將獨行定性為一種高風險的活動，殊為可惜。
To be sure, walking alone involves some degree of risk. Apart from unforeseeable factors, however, the occurrence of accidents involving solitary walkers can to a large extent be put down to certain factors that lie within an individual’s control such as hiking experience, preparation for the walk, knowledge of path conditions, one’s physical condition, weather, and skills in responding to emergencies. Such commonplace notions ― the most basic things even to consider when going on a hike ― are often the easiest things to overlook. This is because the biggest difficulty facing solitary walkers is not having appraised the risks with sufficient modesty and not having acknowledged with complete honesty any inadequacies in one’s physical strength. To define solitary walking as a high-risk activity is a great pity.
不論是為自由、空間、挑戰、或親近自然而出行，這個體驗過程都可讓人更了解自己，進而演化成自我的追尋。可以說，獨行是孤而不僻，開闊而不狹隘的。獨行對心靈和精神都發揮積極作用，塑造正面的思維與價值觀，繼而作出生活與行為的改變。我們珍惜生命的價值，不該只是狹義地存活，而無視心靈層面的追求；我們重視公共資源的合理運用，不可僅僅考慮意外發生後對社會資源的耗損，而否定獨行對一個人思想行為的啓發，從而對社會作出的正面影響。
No matter whether you set off for the sake of freedom, more personal space, the challenge to yourself or to get close to nature, undergoing such an experience can help a person to understand themselves, thereby transforming hiking into a quest for the self. Walking on your own is, I think it is fair to say, gu or “solitary” but not pik or “weird”, an opening out and not a narrowing down. Solitary walking has a positive effect on both the soul and the spirit: it moulds a positive way of thinking as well as a positive set of values, leading to a transformation in both one’s life and one’s behaviour. Cherishing the value of our lives does not mean reducing everything to our narrow existences and remaining indifferent to any pursuit of the spiritual; proper regard for the reasonable use of public resources cannot be reduced to the mere waste of such resources in the event of an accident, thereby depriving us of the enlightenment that solitary walking brings to an individual’s thinking and behaviour and the positive influence this in turn has for a society.
獨行有其兩面性，但它本身並不可怕，可怕的是它只有一種片面而負面的解讀。漠視獨行的本質，抹殺獨行的深層意義，如同摧毀一條自我尋找之路。
Solitary walking has its good and bad points but, in itself, there is nothing terrible about it. The terrible thing is to interpret it in a manner that is only one-sided or negative. To be indifferent to the essential nature of solitary walking and to write off its deeper significance is to obliterate one route to our finding of ourselves.
願有一天，獨行不再是一種忌諱。
It is my wish that one day solitary walking will no longer be something people resent or avoid as being harmful.
Translated by Simon Patton
Chinaman Creek 