Music of Taiwan (original) (raw)

Taiwan is densely-populated and culturally diverse, including a majority of Han Chinese, including the Holo and Hakka peoples and significant quantities of "Mainlanders", refugees who arrived with Chiang Kai-shek in the middle of the 20th century, and the minority ofaboriginal peoples. Information on Han Chinese music can be found in Music of China, while this article will focus on the local music in Taiwan.

With the arrival of the KMT government in 1949, native Taiwanese culture was suppressed, and Mandarin, as the official language of the Republic of China, was promoted. This led to a break in tradition in parts of the island, and ended in 1987, when martial law was lifted and a revival of traditional culture began. (See Taiwanese localization movement)

Holo

The Holo immigrated from Fujian in the 17th century, and brought with them informal folk music, as well as more ritualized instrumental and operatic forms taught in amateur clubs called quguan.

Instrumental music includes multiple genres, such as beiguan and nanguan. Nanguan originally hails from Quanzhou on the mainland, while it is now most common in Lugang and has achieved some international popularity due to the efforts of Gang-a-tsui and Hantang Yuefu. While nanguan is melodic and soft, beiguan is loud and complex and is found across much of the island.

Budaixi hand-puppet theater and gezaixi opera are very popular, while the latter is often considered the only truly indigenous form still extant today.

Holo folk music is most common today on the Hengchun Peninnsula in the southernmost part of the island, where performers sings accompanied by yueqin (moon guitar), which is a type of two-stringed lute. While the Hengchun yueqin makes only five tunes, this can be diverse and complex when combined with seven tones of Taiwanese dialect. Famous folk singers include Chen Da and Yang Xiuqing.

Hakka

Holo gezaixi is popular among the Hakka, and has influenced the tea-picking opera genre. The most distinctive form of Hakka music are mountain songs, or shan'ge, which are similar to Hengchun folk music. Bayin instrumental music is also popular.

Aboriginal music

Of the two broad divisions of Taiwanese aborigines, the plains-dwellers have been largely assimilated into Han culture, while the mountain-dwelling tribes remain distinct. The Amis, Bunun, Paiwan, Rukai and Tsou are known for their polyphonic vocals, of which each has a unique variety.

Once dying, aboriginal culture has undergone a renaissance in recent years. The 1991 formation of the Formosa Aboriginal Dance Troupe was a major contributor to this trend, while the surprise mainstream success of "Return to Innocence", the theme song to the 1996 Olympic Games, further popularized native musics. "Return to Innocence" was made by Enigma, a German pop group and sampled an elderly Amis couple, Guo Yingnan and Guo Xiuzhu. When the couple found out that their recording had become part of an international hit, they filed suit and, in 1999, setttled out of court for an unidentified amount.

Pop and rock

Until the 1987 lifting of martial law, Taiwanese pop fell into two distinct categories. Taiwanese pop was sung in a native dialect and was popular among older and working-class listeners; it was strongly influenced by Japanese enka. In contrast, Mandarin pop appealed to younger listeners and was greatly aided by the state support of the Mandarin language.

With the resurgence of interest in native cultural identities starting in the late 1980s, a more distinct and modern form of Taiwanese pop formed. In 1989, a group of musicians called the Blacklist Studio released Song of Madness on Rock Records. Blending hip hop, rock and other styles, the album focused on the issues concerning everyday, modern people. Building on Song of Madness' success, the following year saw Lin Qiang release Marching Forward, which kickstarted what became known as New Taiwanese Song. Pop stars of the 1990s included Wu Bai, Zhang Huimei, New Formosa Band and Jutoupi.

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