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 help. Musicians from throughout Taiwan gathered within the southern port metropolis of Kaohsiung just lately to attempt to remind folks of the precarious geopolitical scenario 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 acquired some native authorities funding, took over the biggest harbor in Taiwan – therefore its identify, Megaport.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
VALENTINE: Though they got here right here to blow off steam, escalating tensions between Taiwan and China have been on many followers’ and artists’ minds. Final month, Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, labeled Beijing as a, quote, “hostile international 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 means of their set by debuting a cartoon based mostly on a narrative even a child might acknowledge. Three little pigs – Taiwanese pigs, that’s – discuss concerning the information, whereas a sure huge, unhealthy wolf lurks within the background.
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UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: (As character, by means of interpreter) You guys actually suppose there will be a warfare?
VALENTINE: They discuss sending their children overseas earlier than the third little pig interrupts, saying they need to keep and defend their dwelling.
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UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: (As character, by means of interpreter) However what can we do? We’re simply regular folks. What energy do now we have?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #2: (As character, by means of interpreter) Only one abnormal particular person has no energy. However what about 10,000 abnormal folks, 100,000, one million? So many individuals sacrificed themselves so we are able to reside the way in which we do now. The remaining is as much as us.
VALENTINE: The band launched right into a music 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 secure. They weren’t the one artists who frightened a couple of 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 warfare zone beneath Chinese language occupation, fundamental freedoms gone. Not everybody taking part in at Megaport was so ahead, although. Yang says it is a results of bigger tensions within the music scene.
YANG: (By way of interpreter) So many artists from Taiwan resolve they should go to China to develop their careers.
VALENTINE: The end result, she says, is just a handful dare to talk up overtly. However Yang says she has no real interest in going to China or taking part in by their guidelines.
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YANG: (By way of interpreter) There’s by no means been a separation between music and politics. Music is political.
VALENTINE: For most of the artists and followers at Megaport, they’re going to use the pageant to rejoice and protest for so long as they will.
For NPR Information, that is Ashish Valentine in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
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