A Boisterous Send-Off:

On a small path outside a private home in the Taiwanese countryside, a stream of upbeat music is ringing out, including Mayday’s “Leaving the Surface of the Earth” and A-Mei’s “Three Days and Three Nights.” These tunes are accompanied by the sounds of drums and saxophones, while a conductor blows a whistle and vigorously waves a baton, as the Dazhong Women’s Band of Caotun Township in Nantou County, dressed in stylish uniforms, enters the venue to mark the beginning of a funeral.

Friends and family of the deceased prepare food early on funeral days and allow people working at the funeral to first eat their fill, exemplifying the thoughtfulness of Taiwanese people.

Expressions of love

In traditional Taiwanese funerary customs, when a coffin was carried in procession to the burial site, the family and friends of the deceased would hire performance troupes for the event. Yang Shih-hsien, assistant professor in the Department of Life and Death Studies at Nanhua University, says that the number of troupes invited reflected the financial and social status of the clan of the dead person. He sums up the reasons why people hired performance troupes: The first is that they hoped that through the ritualized performances, the deceased would be able to quickly become an immortal and head off to paradise. The second was that the entertaining nature of the performances could lighten the atmosphere and help to assuage family members’ grief. The third was that bolstering the grandeur of the funeral procession would emphasize the rank and honor of the deceased. Yang argues that the hiring of funerary performance troupes has always been an expression of the solicitude of the living towards the dead, making it a custom that embodies the warmth and sentiment of Taiwanese rather than superstition.

However, as Taiwan transitioned into an industrial and commercial society, the pace of life sped up. In addition, integrated funeral service providers were established. There was an emphasis in society on cutting back on funerals and simplifying traditional customs. For urban dwellers in particular, it became increasingly rare to hire large numbers of performers, causing funerary troupes to go into decline. Nonetheless, traditionally people have believed that no matter what their economic status is, the bereaved family should hire at least one performance troupe to lead the funeral procession, so that the sounds of their performance alert village neighbors to come out and pay their last respects to the deceased. As a result, xiyuedui (“Western music groups”—bands with Western instruments that often perform at funerals), which both add to the grandeur of the occasion and provide musical accompaniment, have become a special feature of contemporary funerals with a traditional touch.

Xu Yaci has led the way in continually refining the Dazhong Women’s Band. She has not only increased the number of trained musicians but also designed uniforms for different kinds of gigs, to create a broader future for xiyuedui.

When the Dazhong Women’s Band enters the funeral venue, they first bow to pay their respects to the deceased.

Street arts at funerals

To learn more about xiyuedui, we accompany the Dazhong Women’s Band to the venue of a traditional rural funeral. As soon as we get out of the vehicle we feel the warm hospitality of the local people, as neighbors of the bereaved family urge the performance troupe members, who have traveled from afar, along with the funeral workers, to eat and drink their fill of simple meals and tea that the neighbors have prepared in advance.

After some brief preparations, when the time comes the band members, including drummers and saxophone players, march into the venue in orderly fashion, led by their conductor. The troupe goes through a series of formations as they dance while carrying or playing their instruments. They perform one rhythmic tune after another, irresistibly drawing people’s attention, which immediately livens up the atmosphere at the funeral venue. Once their entrance show has been completed, the family and public mourning rituals take place, during which time the musicians, now in the background, continue to play expressive sentimental music to create a suitable atmosphere.

When the mourning rituals are over, the xiyuedui again takes center stage, encircling the casket as they play and then leading the funeral procession. Regardless of weather or distance, the Dazhong Women’s Band leads the procession forward, playing one tune after another as they stylishly send off the deceased on his or her final journey.

Band director Xu Yaci says that to get a job as a member of a Western music group, the first rule is that one must be punctual. This is because not a single step in the funeral rites can be delayed. Sometimes they have to play at several funerals in one day and perform all day long in high-heeled boots, so that getting raw and calloused feet is part of the routine. However, for xiyuedui members, all the pain is worthwhile if they can bring some energy and sense of closure to funerals.

Xiyuedui have another name in Taiwan: Si-Sol-Mi bands, This is because in days gone by the first three notes of the mourning music played at funeral rites were always si (the seventh note of the Western major scale, also known as ti), sol (the fifth note, also known as so), and mi (the third note). Since it was considered taboo to use the word “funeral,” over time “Si-Sol-Mi” came to be used as the name for funerary bands. Inevitably Si-Sol-Mi bands came to be seen as pariahs, and some restaurants would even refuse to serve people wearing Si-Sol-Mi uniforms.

Fortunately for these bands, in recent years reinterpretations of their roles by experts and scholars from a cultural and artistic perspective have gradually changed such attitudes. For example, on one occasion the Dazhong Women’s Band was invited to perform at a birthday celebration. They suddenly entered the venue and marched in a circle around the birthday boy as they played their instruments, adding to the joyous atmosphere at the party. When the video was posted online it got a big positive response. Today, even as funeral performance troupes are in decline, the Dazhong Women’s Band still is getting hired for at least 30 appearances a month, with sometimes as many as four events in a single day.

Yang Shih-hsien suggests that hiring performance troupes for funeral processions demonstrates the solicitude of the living for the dead and is a custom that embodies the warmth and sentimental nature of Taiwanese.

In the early days of xiyuedui in Taiwan, bands had both male and female members, but in recent years most such groups have been all female. (courtesy of Dazhong Women’s Band)

After the funeral rites are over, the bereaved family considerately serves a hearty meal to recompense the performance troupe for their hard work.

The origins of xiyuedui

Yang Shih-hsien notes that there are many theories about the origins of xiyuedui in Taiwan. According to documentary evidence, during the era of Japanese rule (1895‡1945), a Western-style band appeared at the Keelung Midsummer Ghost Festival, but it is unknown whether they were hired from abroad or were a local Taiwanese group. Another story is that the tradition began with a group of music lovers from Fu’an in Taipei’s Songshan area during the Japanese era who sought out teachers to learn Western instruments, and won a prize in a national music competition under the name of Songshan Fu’an District Musical Group. Another widely known theory points to a xiyuedui organized at the Luocuo Catholic Church in Changhua County as being the first musical group to introduce Western instruments and music into funeral rites.

Taddy Chiu, head of the Luocuo Parish Pastoral & Evangelization Council, says that in the early days when Catholic missionaries came to Taiwan, Western medicine, music, and art followed in their wake. He tells us that Fr. Joseph Arregui, parish priest at the Luocuo Catholic Church, who could play the trumpet, organized the first xiyuedui at the church in 1930, and they would perform at celebrations and holidays as well as the funerals of parishioners. In 1937 Fr. Constantino Montero Alvarez took over as parish priest, and he not only hired professional musicians to improve the training of the second generation of band members, he also had uniforms made and expanded the group. The third generation of the band, under the leadership of Fr. Patrick Donnelly, began playing at funerals of non-Catholic Taiwanese, enabling the members to earn some income and slowly building up the custom of hiring Western music groups for funeral processions.

Although the Luocuo Catholic Church band broke up after the third generation, members continued to take part in other xiyuedui. Huang Heming, who was a member of the third-generation Luocuo band, notes: “Sometimes outside groups were short of people and bands borrowed each other’s members to fill in, or residents of neighboring villages got together to form a band.” Though Huang, who is over 90, no longer has the energy to play the trombone, as he chats with us he can’t help but pick up the instrument and make the gestures as he mischievously hums the notes, looking quite charming as he does so. His days playing in the band must surely have brought him many beautiful experiences.

Huang Heming was a member of the third generation of the Luocuo Church xiyuedui. His eyes light up as he recalls his days playing with the band.

Luocuo Catholic Church in Changhua County still has instruments used by the first generation of the church’s xiyuedui, which are on public display.

Luocuo Catholic Church was one of the starting points of xiyuedui in Taiwan.

All-female xiyuedui take the lead

The members of the Songshan Fu’an and Luocuo Church bands were almost all male. Yang Shih-hsien says that in the early days Western music groups were made up of amateurs playing for fun, and were not operated commercially in an organized manner. Instead it was women, who had more free time, who were better placed to go professional. As more and more women joined xiyuedui, a musician named Chen Dingcai from Beidou in Changhua County seized the moment to form the Beidou Women’s Brass Band. This became the first sizeable all-­female band in Taiwan and launched a fashion for women’s Western music groups.

Another example is the Xiujuan Women’s Band from Yunlin County. Band leader Guo Shujuan worked in the funeral business for many years and at first was a “stray bird” who played in various bands. When she was 31, she decided to form a band of her own, and invited several good friends, along with their daughters and daughters-in-law, to join the group. She notes that there are few job opportunities in rural areas, and although work in a xi­yue­dui is arduous, facing all kinds of weather from scorching sunshine to pouring rain, the hours are flexible and members can continue to look after their families even as they earn extra money. Sometimes when there is no one to look after band members’ children, they bring the kids along to practices or performances. Many band members have raised their kids this way, and some of these children are today members of the Xiujuan Women’s Band.

Guo, who has seen the heyday of Western music groups but is sensible of the reality that traditional performance troupes are in decline, tries to keep her band up to date by adding pop songs to funerary performances. Examples include Wu Bai’s “Flower” and Mayday’s “Go for a Ride.” She also does this to break the stereotype that xiyuedui only perform at funerals, and she has taken gigs at temple events, birthday celebrations, marriage proposals, and year-end office parties. Her band has even appeared on TV variety shows and been reported on in foreign media.

Whether it be the Dazhong Women’s Band, the Xiujuan Women’s Band, or other all-female xiyuedui, they are constantly trying to reach the next level and make every ritual at which they perform a success, thereby creating a new path forward in the role once played by traditional performance troupes.

The Xiujuan Women’s Band also plays at celebratory events, adding a great deal of energy to parties. (courtesy of Xiujuan Women’s Band)

Guo Shujuan (rear, center) founded the Xiujuan Women’s Band. She hopes that young people can see a future for xiyuedui and that her group may perform overseas someday.