What is "Taiwanese music"? What is the significance of "100 Years of Taiwanese music"?

Tchen Yu-chiou, chairman of the Egret Foundation and chairman of the Department of Music at National Taiwan Normal University, says that, as far as the development of music in a given place goes, 100 years is long enough for an immature bud to grow to full maturity. And the century of music since the Treaty of Shimonoseki is especially worth considering: The treaty drew a line across the Taiwan Strait and consequently music developed in different directions on the two sides as Taiwan passed through the Japanese occupation period.

When you think about it, musical culture is profoundly related to everyday social and economic life. But Lin Ku-fang, a scholar of folk music, says that it is better to focus on the music itself to truly understand the special features of Taiwan's music. Among historical questions, those most deserving our concern include the development and shifts in traditions, the impact of outside influences, and the tracing of what has survived and what has been lost.

Pestles were originally agricultural tools, used to husk rice. At some point people discovered that lovely sounds could be produced by striking them against rocks, and that the sound could be varied by altering the length or thickness of the pestle. Thus came about the renowned pestle music of the Shao people of Sun Moon Lake. This photo, taken in the Japanese occupation era, may depict a performance put on for tourists. That same year, Chang Fu-hsing, the first Taiwanese musician to study in Japan,produced a report on the pestle music. This was the first ever work to transcribe aboriginal songs using Western musical theory.

What is Taiwanese music?

Lin says that one must take into account the elements of culture, time, the level of society at which the music is appreciated, and musical genre. After weighing all of these, Taiwanese music can be divided into several categories: (1) Traditional Chinese music, such as nanguan and beiguan, folk music, Hakka songs, and so on; (2) Modern songs, including Taiwanese, Hakka, and Mandarin songs; (3) New compositions of Chinese music produced in conservatories, including those influenced by Western music; (4) Traditional aboriginal music, and (5) New aboriginal music.

Because of limited material, the Egret Foundation was unable to fully depict all these categories in its photo exhibition. The pictures selected for display show a bias toward Western classical music as performed in Taiwan, and on the Taiwanese music produced during and just after the Japanese occupation era.

Lin Ku-fang argues that this orientation shows that the impact of the Japanese occupation era is still with us. In that era, Western classical music was all the rage among society's upper strata, a trend which has lasted to the present day. Taiwanese folk music of that day has become a focus in part because those days are still a recent memory, in part because the music is easily accessible and rich in entertainment value, and because of the promotional efforts of record companies.

Be all that as it may, the idea of bringing together musical images is a fresh one, and shows some preliminary fruits.

Chuang Yung-ming is a scholar of Taiwanese folk music. He points out that--unless one has sheet music--it is easy to lose all historical trace of music created before the advent of recorded sound. It is thus unlike paintings or sculpture, which can be collected and passed along. Thus he feels that photographs, which capture concretely and in detail a piece of their era, are especially precious.

Tchen Yu-chiou explains that the Egret Foundation is a private group, and thus has only limited time and energy. She describes the exhibit using the Chinese metaphor "casting a brick to draw in a jade piece"--making a crude first step in hopes people will correct its errors by making brilliant contributions of their own. In the future it is hoped that many enthusiastic people will participate in the collection of photos and images about the history of music in Taiwan.

Because of the exploratory nature of the Egret Foundation's effort, the scattered photos they have collected cannot be seen as anything like a "complete" depiction of Taiwan's music over the past hundred years. Nevertheless, it has been valuable as a step in the search for traces of the music of the past. Let us follow the trail back to those days-gone-by and listen to the stories these old photographs have to tell us.

[Picture Caption]

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Pestles were originally agricultural tools, used to husk rice. At some point people discovered that lovely sounds could be produced by striking them against rocks, and that the sound could be varied by altering the length or thickness of the pestle. Thus came about the renowned pestle music of the Shao people of Sun Moon Lake. This photo, taken in the Japanese occupation era, may depict a performance put on for tourists. That same year, Chang Fu-hsing, the first Taiwanese musician to study in Japan,produced a report on the pestle music. This was the first ever work to transcribe aboriginal songs using Western musical theory.

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Aboriginal music is one of the most unique elements in the music of Taiwan. In this photo "Tsou Aborigines Performing," the woman at far right holds a bowed string instrument, the man next to her is playing a bamboo flute, the next man over is playing a nose flute, and the woman at left is playing a Jew's-harp. All the major instruments used by indigenous peoples at that time are pictured here. Hsu Chang-huei, a professor at National Taiwan Normal University, Says that it is likely that the four deliberately posed for this picture, because Tsou people rarely played in groups. The photo was taken at Tapang Village, near Alishan in what is today Chiayi County. The men wear traditional clothing, while the women are dressed in shirts and floral-patterned wrap-around skirts, showing the influence of Japanese fashion. It's interesting that though the Taiya and other indigenous peoples still use such instruments today, there is almost no one left in the Tsou tribe able to play them. The photo can bring us back to how the Tsou appeared then. (1912, photo by Nakajima Taro)

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The importation of Western music into Taiwan was strongly affected by religion. Many musicians first came across Western music through missionaries. Chang Fu-hsing, however, was one of the few artists so outstanding that they were sent to Japan for training. The photograph above right was taken in front of a hometown temple whose construction was just completed. The written characters in the photo refer to a Taoist templeopening ceremony. As a member of the local gentry, Chang would have not only given money for construction of the platform for the ceremony, he would also have attended. It was perhaps experiences such as these that gave Chang such a deep concern for fostering Taiwan's indigenous music. In the photo Chang's given name is written as "Wu-hsing." Lu Chui-kuan, director of the Institute of Traditional Arts at the National Institute of the Arts, guesses that this may be the result of a linguistic error, though he doesn't rule out the possibility Chang adopted a new name. The date on the photograph is 1929.

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In 1920, Chang (seated) organized the Ling Lung Hui (roughly: "The Association of Pleasing Tones") in Taipei, and 40 or 50 people participated. According to available records, this must have been Taiwan's first orchestra with brass, woodwinds, and strings. This photo was taken in 1918 in front of a home in Hsinpu. Still two years before the Ling Lung Hui, the photo suggests that Western music was already being performed in the countryside even then. Chang was a pioneer in the introduction of Western music to Taiwan. The photo implies something of the relationship the local gentry had with Western music at that time.

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Taiwanese music in the Japanese occupation era was not limited to love songs and other emotive tunes. Some expressed views of current events, creating a special feature of Taiwanese music of that era. The 1930 ditty "Beautiful Woman on a Bridge" was written by New Literature leader Chen Chun-yu. The lyrics, depicted here, clearly show the impact of Japanese grammar. The lyrics have a hidden meaning: "loneliness because no one can understand." The music for this piece has been lost, so today it is unknown how it should be sung. (photo courtesy of Chuang Yung ming)

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The men are holding an erhu (a stringed instrument) and a stringed gourd. They pose here with two well-dressed young women as well as a boy on a water buffalo, while in the background are plantains, a common sight in the countryside in Taiwan. To the side of the photo is written in Japanese: "In front of my home before setting off." Obviously it is a commemorative photo for someone going far away (perhaps to Japan). Lu Chui-kuan explains the photo thus: The musical instruments represent the sounds of the hometown, while the plantains and the boy with his buffalo show its daily life, thus creating a scene to reminisce over. (photo courtesy of Lin Han-chang)

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"Song of Welcome," and "Our Beautiful Island Taiwan" are written across the top of this sheet music. "Song of Welcome" was composed by Chou Ching-yuan, an important musician of the occupation era, to welcome the Nationalist government after the end of the Japanese occupation. It is one of the few works of Chou's still extant. Musicologist Chuang Yung-ming says that these titles belong to two separate songs, and in fact the sheet music on the next page separates them, so he does not know why the titles were written together. The lyrics tell us something of the initial enthusiasm with which Taiwanese greeted their return to Chinese rule.

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This is a record label from the song "Looking Forward to the Spring Wind." This tune, whose lyrics were written by Li Lin-chiu with music by Teng Yu-hsien, was one of the most popular Taiwanese songs of the 1940s. The lyrics describe how young girls are too shy to express their feelings. "I thought I heard someone coming outside/ I rushed to the door to look/ Mother Moon was looking down and laughing/ At someone so stupid as to be fooled by the wind." In an interview with Chuang Yung-ming, Li Lin-chiu said that he got his inspiration from the words to the Yuan dynasty play "The West Chamber": "I see the shadow of a waving flower through the window/ I suspect that my jade lady has come." The song is seen as one of the best examples of Taiwanese language creations. (record label courtesy of Wu Yi-yang)

Aboriginal music is one of the most unique elements in the music of Taiwan. In this photo "Tsou Aborigines Performing," the woman at far right holds a bowed string instrument, the man next to her is playing a bamboo flute, the next man over is playing a nose flute, and the woman at left is playing a Jew's-harp. All the major instruments used by indigenous peoples at that time are pictured here. Hsu Chang-huei, a professor at National Taiwan Normal University, Says that it is likely that the four deliberately posed for this picture, because Tsou people rarely played in groups. The photo was taken at Tapang Village, near Alishan in what is today Chiayi County. The men wear traditional clothing, while the women are dressed in shirts and floral-patterned wrap-around skirts, showing the influence of Japanese fashion. It's interesting that though the Taiya and other indigenous peoples still use such instruments today, there is almost no one left in the Tsou tribe able to play them. The photo can bring us back to how the Tsou appeared then. (1912, photo by Nakajima Taro)

The importation of Western music into Taiwan was strongly affected by religion. Many musicians first came across Western music through missionaries. Chang Fu-hsing, however, was one of the few artists so outstanding that they were sent to Japan for training. The photograph above right was taken in front of a hometown temple whose construction was just completed. The written characters in the photo refer to a Taoist templeopening ceremony. As a member of the local gentry, Chang would have not only given money for construction of the platform for the ceremony, he would also have attended. It was perhaps experiences Such as these that gave Chang such a deep concern for fostering Taiwan's indigenous music. In the photo Chang's given name is written as "Wu-hsing." Lu Chui-kuan, director of the Institute of Traditional Arts at the National Institute of the Arts, guesses that this may be the result of a linguistic error, though he doesn't rule out the possibility Chang adopted a new name. The date on the photograph is 1929.

In 1920, Chang (seated) organized the Ling Lung Hui (roughly: "The Association of Pleasing Tones") in Taipei, and 40 or 50 people participated. According to available records, this must have been Taiwan's first orchestra with brass, woodwinds, and strings. This photo was taken in 1918 in front of a home in Hsinpu. Still two years before the Ling Lung Hui, the photo suggests that Western music was already being performed in the countryside even then. Chang was a pioneer in the introduction of Western music to Taiwan. The photo implies something of the relationship the local gentry had with Western music at that time.

Taiwanese music in the Japanese occupation era was not limited to love songs and other emotive tunes. Some expressed views of current events, creating a special feature of Taiwanese music of that era. The 1930 ditty "Beautiful Woman on a Bridge" was written by New Literature leader Chen Chun-yu. The lyrics, depicted here, clearly show the impact of Japanese grammar. The lyrics have a hidden meaning: "loneliness because no one can understand." The music for this piece has been lost, so today it is unknown how it should be sung. (photo courtesy of Chuang Yung ming)

The men are holding an erhu (a stringed instrument) and a stringed gourd. They pose here with two well-dressed young women as well as a boy on a water buffalo, while in the background are plantains, a common sight in the countryside in Taiwan. To the side of the photo is written in Japanese: "In front of my home before setting off." Obviously it is a commemorative photo for someone going far away (perhaps to Japan). Lu Chui-kuan explains the photo thus: The musical instruments represent the sounds of the hometown, while the plantains and the boy with his buffalo show its daily life, thus creating a scene to reminisce over. (photo courtesy of Lin Han-chang)

"Song of Welcome," and "Our Beautiful Island Taiwan" are written across the top of this sheet music. "Song of Welcome" was composed by Chou Ching-yuan, an important musician of the occupation era, to welcome the Nationalist government after the end of the Japanese occupation. It is one of the few works of Chou's still extant. Musicologist Chuang Yung-ming says that these titles belong to two separate songs, and in fact the sheet music on the next page separates them, so he does not know why the titles were written together. The lyrics tell us something of the initial enthusiasm with which Taiwanese greeted their return to Chinese rule.

This is a record label from the song "Looking Forward to the Spring Wind." This tune, whose lyrics were written by Li Lin-chiu with music by Teng Yu-hsien, was one of the most popular Taiwanese songs of the 1940s. The lyrics describe how young girls are too shy to express their feelings. "I thought I heard someone coming outside/ I rushed to the door to look/ Mother Moon was looking down and laughing/ At someone so stupid as to be fooled by the wind." In an interview with Chuang Yung-ming, Li Lin-chiu said that he got his inspiration from the words to the Yuan dynasty play "The West Chamber": "I see the shadow of a waving flower through the window/ I suspect that my jade lady has come." The song is seen as one of the best examples of Taiwanese language creations. (record label courtesy of Wu Yi-yang)