An unusual father–son CD surprised the pop music world in 2014. A collection of Wu ­Sheng’s poems set to music by his son, songwriter Zu­lin Wu, the album brought a new energy and excitement to Taiwan’s poetry and music scenes.

Zulin has been a music lover since childhood, and received his first guitar from his father when he was admitted to his middle school’s gifted program. But his father viewed music as an extracurricular pastime, and never imagined that Zu­lin’s schoolwork would take a backseat to songwriting. As Wu ­Sheng watched his son’s grades fall, he realized that Zu­lin was much like him: the elder Wu had caused his own father no end of worry when his love of literature had caused his high-school grades to plummet.

Wu ­Sheng and his wife embarked on an aggressive “rescue” effort that ultimately enabled Zu­lin to win admission to the Department of Forestry at National ­Chung ­Hsing University. While the elder Wu wanted the younger to attend university, Zu­lin was determined to go to Tai­pei to play music. They ended up arguing about it from ten in the evening until nearly dawn the next day, when Zu­lin finally agreed to go along with his father’s wishes. Wu ­Sheng recalls it as a battle of wills.

Wu Sheng (right) grew up in a farming village. The love of Nature he shares with his son Zulin (left) fills both men’s work.

Wu ­Sheng has always guided his son using encouragement­ and communication. He only took on the role of the “heavy” when things were very serious indeed. “One time I got very upset and told my grandmother she was nuts,” remembers Zu­lin. “Dad didn’t say a word; he just slapped me.”

When Wu ­Sheng retired, he left his wife behind in Chang­hua and moved to Tai­chung with Zu­lin to encourage him in his university studies. While most people would find it hard to imagine being in constant contact with their parents—father and son even shared an apartment in Tai­chung—Zu­lin explains, “My family loves to talk about deeper subjects, like the environment, politics and literature, and I just prefer to talk with them than with friends my own age.”

Schoolwork was their only sensitive conversational topic. When Wu Sheng was a student, his father didn’t object to his literary endeavors provided that he attended to his studies, earned his degree, and treated writing as an avocation. Wu ­Sheng wanted something similar from his son: he felt that if Zu­lin was to create art with integrity in his spare time, he needed to prioritize life’s basics and build a solid foundation from which to pursue his artistic development.

But while Wu ­Sheng hoped Zu­lin would establish a career as a researcher or tour guide, his son had other plans. Having inherited his father’s determination, he chose to forge ahead with a career in music.

The two recorded a second album in celebration of Zulin’s grandmother and their mutual love of the land. They hope it will remind listeners of the beauty and simplicity of rural life.

For all that Wu ­Sheng is a poet and Zu­lin Wu the lead singer in a band, both produce work filled with a deep respect and affection for the land. Interestingly, their sentiments have a common source: Zu­lin’s grandmother, who provides both men with their spiritual touchstone.

Wu ­Sheng was born and raised in an agricultural village, and used to help his mother farm when he wasn’t teaching. In later years, his mother put her three grandchildren to work as well, teaching them how to carry rice seedlings and dry harvested rice. Given the men’s background, it is only natural that they’d feel strong ties to the land. They internalized their attachment to it at an early age.

Wu ­Sheng praises his mother for her naturalism and practicality. His poem “Earth” pays homage to something she once told him:

“Cool breezes make the best fan / Rice paddies make the best scenery / The sound of water and the cry of birds make the best songs.”

To his mother, life was simple and beautiful. She appreciated the beauty of pristine fields much more than the value of the harvested rice. Her greatest gift to her son and grandchildren was the directness with which she approached life.

When Zu­lin was pushed on stage to perform the as-yet-unreleased “Love You with All My Heart” at Wu ­Sheng’s 60th-birthday banquet, partygoers went wild for the song, a Wu ­Sheng poem set to a lovely tune. The crowd’s calls for the two men to record an album, and praise from Zu­lin’s mother, notoriously sparing with her compliments, got Zu­lin thinking about releasing a CD of his father’s poems.

Coincidentally, the Council for Cultural Affairs (now the Ministry of Culture) was at that time putting together a compilation of Wu’s work, both assembling a digital archive and considering audio products. All of these factors ultimately led to the release in 2008 of Wu ­Sheng Poems & Songs: The Sweet Burden. Planned and produced by Zu­lin, the CD featured a selection of the elder Wu’s poems read aloud by Wu himself, and sung by various musicians.

Following the album’s release, the two men received numerous invitations to perform together, with the elder reading his poems and the younger singing them. The joint performances brought father and son even closer together.

Seeing Zu­lin gaining a foothold in the music business enabled Wu Sheng let go of his worries about his son’s career choice, and got him thinking about doing another album, this time with just the two of them.

In 2014, Wu arranged a concert in honor of his mother in the grove that bears her name, on what would have been her 100th birthday. He and Zu­lin also released a second album: Wu ­Sheng Poems and Songs: Picnic.

For Picnic, Zu­lin se­lected poems of his father’s that memorialize his grandmother and speak of attachment to the land, then wrote all of the tunes and played all of the instruments himself. The album features his father reading his poems, his brother’s children singing harmonies, and, on one song, a 20-year-old recording of his grandmother’s voice. By adroitly incorporating the voices of four generations, Zu­lin infused the entire album with a profound sense of continuity.

“In addition to celebrating her life, I hope that the album and concerts will help spread the hard-working attitude of rural communities, and encourage people to cherish the natural world,” explains Wu ­Sheng.

Poet and musician, father and son, poetry readings and good songs.... Wu ­Sheng jokes that they are Taiwan’s only father–son touring band. In a way, it’s no joke. The two men have chosen to travel their creative path together, and their “band” looks set to play on for as long as Wu keeps writing poems.

Wu Sheng the poet and Zulin the songwriter have chosen to walk their creative path together.