At Taiwan’s premier music pageant, artists went political with their tunes and lyrics.
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Social actions have lengthy used music to unfold messages and rally assist. Musicians from throughout Taiwan gathered within the southern port metropolis of Kaohsiung just lately to attempt to remind folks of the precarious geopolitical state of affairs wherein they discover their island. Ashish Valentine experiences.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ASHISH VALENTINE, BYLINE: Final weekend, tens of 1000’s of followers gathered to see a number of the greatest Taiwan’s music scene has to supply. The pageant, which obtained some native authorities funding, took over the biggest harbor in Taiwan – therefore its title, Megaport.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
VALENTINE: Though they got here right here to blow off steam, escalating tensions between Taiwan and China had been on many followers’ and artists’ minds. Final month, Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, labeled Beijing as a, quote, “hostile overseas drive.” Many bands urged followers to remain united, saying this is not the primary time Taiwan’s folks have risked their lives for a greater future.
Taking the stage on the pageant’s second day, rock band Sorry Youth stunned everybody midway by their set by debuting a cartoon based mostly on a narrative even a child may acknowledge. Three little pigs – Taiwanese pigs, that’s – speak concerning the information, whereas a sure massive, dangerous wolf lurks within the background.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: (As character, by interpreter) You guys actually assume there will be a struggle?
VALENTINE: They discuss sending their youngsters overseas earlier than the third little pig interrupts, saying they need to keep and defend their residence.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: (As character, by interpreter) However what will we do? We’re simply regular folks. What energy do we’ve got?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #2: (As character, by interpreter) Only one odd individual has no energy. However what about 10,000 odd folks, 100,000, 1,000,000? So many individuals sacrificed themselves so we are able to reside the way in which we do now. The remainder is as much as us.
VALENTINE: The band launched right into a track referred to as “Justice In Time.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SORRY YOUTH SONG, “JUSTICE IN TIME”)
VALENTINE: It pays tribute to generations of activists who resisted 4 a long time of dictatorship, which solely led to 1987, and guarantees that future generations will preserve their hard-won democracy protected. They weren’t the one artists who fearful a few potential Chinese language invasion. Hip-hop artist Yang Shu-ya’s single “2045” wonders what struggling for democracy would imply in Taiwan if every part burns to ashes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “2045”)
YANG SHU-YA: (Rapping in non-English language).
VALENTINE: She imagines Taiwan as a struggle zone beneath Chinese language occupation, primary freedoms gone. Not everybody enjoying at Megaport was so ahead, although. Yang says it is a results of bigger tensions within the music scene.
YANG: (By interpreter) So many artists from Taiwan resolve they should go to China to develop their careers.
VALENTINE: The consequence, she says, is barely a handful dare to talk up brazenly. However Yang says she has no real interest in going to China or enjoying by their guidelines.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
YANG: (By interpreter) There’s by no means been a separation between music and politics. Music is political.
VALENTINE: For lots of the artists and followers at Megaport, they’re going to use the pageant to have a good time and protest for so long as they’ll.
For NPR Information, that is Ashish Valentine in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
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