TALK | Jessica J. Lee: Plants as Vehicles for Thinking

​Plants as Vehicles for Thinking
A talk by Jessica J. Lee

​From Two Trees Make a Forest to Dispersals, plants and landscapes have been recurring threads in Jessica J. Lee’s writing. They are not simply part of the natural world, but also become ways of thinking through identity, migration, language, family history, and cultural memory.

​As a writer of Taiwanese heritage, how has Jessica come to feel closer to Taiwan through writing? How does a place that may at first have existed at a distance—in family memory, language, and culture—gradually become somewhere that can be understood, felt, and related to anew through reading, research, walking, and writing?

​In Two Trees Make a Forest, Jessica follows the traces of her family history into Taiwan’s mountains and landscapes, searching for her relationship with the island through plants, language, and memory. In Dispersals, this search expands outward from the personal experience of return. Plants may appear rooted in one place, yet they are constantly crossing borders in different ways: seeds escape from gardens, seaweed drifts across oceans, and tea and soybeans are carried to new lands through trade, colonialism, and human migration. People who leave their homelands, too, may carry plants with them, bringing a small part of home to another place. These movements raise a series of questions: What does it mean to be “native,” and what does it mean to be “foreign”? What happens when something leaves its place of origin and takes root elsewhere? And might what we call “home” and “belonging” also be, like plants, mobile and continually taking shape?

​Beginning with the idea of “Plants as vehicles for thinking,” this talk invites Jessica J. Lee to reflect on how plants have become a way of understanding both herself and the world around her. By following the movements of plants and looking anew at human histories through their journeys, the conversation asks whether we might arrive at different ways of imagining migration, diaspora, belonging, and cultural memory.

Jointly presented by nowhere bookstore and encounters as part of the 'Taiwan Across Cities' programme.

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​與植物一起思考：遷徙、記憶與離散
講者：李潔珂

​從《山與林的深處》到《離散的植物》，植物與地景始終是李潔珂書寫中重要的線索。它們不只是自然世界的一部分，也成為她思考身分、遷徙、語言、家族歷史與文化記憶的媒介。

​作為具有台灣血緣的作家，李潔珂如何透過書寫逐漸靠近台灣？一個最初可能存在於家族記憶、語言與文化之中，既遙遠又抽象的地方，如何在閱讀、研究、行走與書寫的過程中，逐漸成為可以理解、感受，並重新建立關係的所在？

​在《山與林的深處》，李潔珂沿著家族歷史的線索進入台灣的山林與地景，在植物、語言與記憶之間，尋找自己與這座島嶼的關係。到了《離散的植物》，這樣的追尋進一步從個人的返鄉經驗向外展開。植物看似生根於一地，實際上卻不斷以各種方式跨越疆界：種子逃離花園，海藻隨水漂流，茶與大豆在人類的貿易、殖民與遷徙中被帶往異地；而離鄉的人，也可能攜著植物，把一小部分的原鄉帶往新的土地。植物的移動因此牽引出一連串問題：什麼是「原生」，什麼又是「外來」？離開原鄉之後，如何在另一片土地扎根？而我們所說的「家」與「歸屬」，是否也可能像植物一樣，是流動而不斷生成的？

​這場講座希望從「與植物一起思考」出發，邀請李潔珂談談植物如何成為她理解自身與世界的方法，以及當我們沿著植物的移動軌跡重新觀看人的歷史時，能否對遷徙、離散、歸屬與文化記憶產生不同的想像。

​此節目與台北飛地書店合辦，為「台灣季 · 在世界之間｜十城對話」活動之一。