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 individuals of the precarious geopolitical state of affairs by which they discover their island. Ashish Valentine reviews.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ASHISH VALENTINE, BYLINE: Final weekend, tens of 1000’s of followers gathered to see among the finest 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 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 individuals have risked their lives for a greater future.
Taking the stage on the pageant’s second day, rock band Sorry Youth stunned everybody midway via their set by debuting a cartoon primarily based on a narrative even a child may 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, via interpreter) You guys actually suppose there will be a warfare?
VALENTINE: They discuss sending their youngsters overseas earlier than the third little pig interrupts, saying they need to keep and defend their house.
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UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: (As character, via interpreter) However what will we do? We’re simply regular individuals. What energy do we have now?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #2: (As character, via interpreter) Only one bizarre particular person has no energy. However what about 10,000 bizarre individuals, 100,000, one million? So many individuals sacrificed themselves so we will dwell the way in which we do now. The remaining is as much as us.
VALENTINE: The band launched right into a tune known as “Justice In Time.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SORRY YOUTH SONG, “JUSTICE IN TIME”)
VALENTINE: It pays tribute to generations of activists who resisted 4 many years of dictatorship, which solely led to 1987, and guarantees that future generations will hold their hard-won democracy secure. They weren’t the one artists who nervous 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 warfare zone underneath 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 means of interpreter) So many artists from Taiwan determine they should go to China to develop their careers.
VALENTINE: The outcome, she says, is simply a handful dare to talk up overtly. However Yang says she has little interest in going to China or taking part in by their guidelines.
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YANG: (By means 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 will use the pageant to have fun and protest for so long as they will.
For NPR Information, that is Ashish Valentine in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
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