In Memory of Lin Ximing
宜蘭漢子林錫銘
One day in October, I was still in bed, the phone rang. “I’m Lin Ximing.” “Yes.” “How are you? I have a favor to ask. I want to raise funds from my students and friends to purchase your narrative painting Taiwan Forefathers – Arriving Shore and give it to my teacher as a gift.” “Let’s chat. Please give me a call when you have time.” That was Oct. 2, Wednesday. I called five times but didn’t hear from him. The following Tuesday, when I was teaching in my studio, I learned from my student Zhao Meiying that Lin Ximing just passed away.
十月初某日上午，我還在迷糊之中，電話響起，“我是林錫銘。”“是。”“你身體好？我有一事相求：我想發動我的學生，我的同學，大家湊款來購買冉老師您的油畫巨作先民渡海之抵岸，然後送給我的老師。”“哇，我們約個時間聊聊，你有空時在打電話給我。”這是十月二日星期三。我接著打了五次電話，但全無音訊。到接下來星期二上課時，才從畫室學生趙梅英口中知道他剛剛過世的消息。是否就是那天？他還沒有說完。
More than twenty years ago, Lin Ximing and I met at an Italian coffee shop in my apartment complex every afternoon. Almost all the photographers of the major newspapers in Taipei came to this coffee shop everyday to wait for the photo studio across the street to open to develop their news photos. They would leave as soon as the photos were ready. In 2001, I had a solo exhibition at the Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall in Taipei. During the opening ceremony, my students noticed a flower basket labeled as “Italian” and became excited. I couldn’t think of any Italian friends. All of a sudden, I saw Lin Ximing smiling at the door and it dawned on me that the flower basket was from the group of photographers that met at the Italian coffee shop.
二十多年前我們在我家正義國宅後巷的義大利咖啡館幾乎每天下午都來聚首，喝咖啡，閒聊。也幾乎台北幾家重要的報社的攝影記者都來了。等待忠孝東路正義國宅對面的聯合攝影店沖洗當天的新聞照片。照片一好，大家即行散去。2001年，我在國父紀唸館舉辦畫展，開幕那天，學生發現花籃中有“義大利”字樣，一時鼓躁起來。我也想不起有很什麼義大利的朋友。忽然發現門口微笑的林錫銘，馬上想起“義大利咖啡”館以及那夥攝影界朋友。
When I worked on the second draft of oil painting Arriving Shore, I asked Lin to be a model of one of the farmers. He agreed right away. After the painting was done, he often pointed to young farmer with a red head scarf in the catalog of the painting and told other people, “That’s me!”
當我在畫先民渡海-抵岸第二稿時，請他擔任中間一青年農民的模特兒，他概然允諾。完成後，他經常指著畫冊中那包裹紅頭巾的青年，“那就是我呀！”
After he came down with illness, he kept himself busy by detailing his condition and treatment on Facebook. When he was feeling a little bit better, he took his students to Mainland China for photography classes. Now he’s gone, along with his passion and grace. How I miss him, my dear friend!
他病倒了，稍能坐臥，還不斷著文與臉書詳述自己的病況和如何治療。身體稍有起色，還遠赴大陸，帶學生去上攝影課。他把熱情灑脫都瀟灑地帶走了。這個宜蘭漢子啊！
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