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十九世紀，從歐洲漂洋過海的三等艙難民，身上沒任何健康證明，要在Ellis
Island接受並通過不科學的檢查，方能進入紐約。從此小島後來不斷擴充，興建醫院，專門「收容」傳染病人，例如死亡率甚高的肺癆。曼克頓近在咫尺，自由女神像昂然佇立，小島卻彷彿孤絕於世。Flux
Factory一位德籍猶太裔藝術家告訴我，她的祖父母當年在此小島登記時，因部分字母打不成英文，家族姓氏就自此被更改了。作品引錄文字，出自白先勇《紐約客》小說集。
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In the
19th century, immigrants who had travelled third class from Europe
were subject to unscientific health check-ups in Ellis Island before
they could set foot in New York. The island expanded as immigrants
grew in numbers, and a hospital was built for the admission of
immigrants with contagious diseases such as tuberculosis, highly
fatal at the time. Manhattan was far away yet so close, while the
island, with the Statue of Liberty gloriously up high, was almost
isolated. A German Jewish artist whom I met in Flux Factory told me
that her family name was changed the moment her grandparents set
foot on this island, just because some of the alphabets could not be
found in the English typewriter. Text in this work comes from New
Yorker by Taiwanese novelist Pai Hsien-yung.
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