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 lately to attempt to remind individuals of the precarious geopolitical scenario wherein they discover their island. Ashish Valentine stories.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ASHISH VALENTINE, BYLINE: Final weekend, tens of 1000’s of followers gathered to see a number of the finest Taiwan’s music scene has to supply. The pageant, which obtained some native authorities funding, took over the most important harbor in Taiwan – therefore its identify, Megaport.
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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 overseas 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 by way 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 in regards to the information, whereas a sure large, unhealthy wolf lurks within the background.
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UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: (As character, by way of interpreter) You guys actually assume there will be a battle?
VALENTINE: They speak about sending their children overseas earlier than the third little pig interrupts, saying they need to keep and defend their residence.
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UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: (As character, by way of interpreter) However what can we do? We’re simply regular individuals. What energy do now we have?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #2: (As character, by way of interpreter) Only one bizarre individual has no energy. However what about 10,000 bizarre individuals, 100,000, one million? So many individuals sacrificed themselves so we are able to dwell the way in which we do now. The remaining is as much as us.
VALENTINE: The band launched right into a tune 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 many years 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 frightened 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 thing burns to ashes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “2045”)
YANG SHU-YA: (Rapping in non-English language).
VALENTINE: She imagines Taiwan as a battle zone beneath Chinese language occupation, primary 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 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 means of 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 rejoice and protest for so long as they will.
For NPR Information, that is Ashish Valentine in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
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