Taiwan Today

I wear the bells my mother gave me as I walk the road to Posong. The bells ring as I walk … tang tang tang … The weather is beautiful today as I descend from the mountains, singing the traditional melodies … tang tang tang …
—Tangfur (Bells), Suming Rupi, 2010

On a Friday evening in May this year, around 200 people gathered inside Eslite Bookstore’s flagship outlet in downtown Taipei City to enjoy a performance by Suming Rupi, an aboriginal singer and songwriter who had recently released a new album. Singing and playing guitar for his enthralled young fans, Suming’s performance could have been viewed as just another good example of the vibrancy of Taiwan’s pop music scene, which is arguably the most dynamic and creative sector of the country’s entertainment industry. Suming’s songs, however, did more than just entertain, as he also made a point of explaining the language used in them to the audience. Suming writes the words of his songs in the Roman alphabet instead of the Han Chinese characters commonly used in Taiwan and sings in the tongue of the Amis people. Primarily residing in Hualien and Taitung counties in eastern Taiwan, the Amis are Taiwan’s largest indigenous ethnic group. A member of Taitung’s Atolan tribe, a subgroup of the Amis, Suming invited the audience to join him in singing some of the most commonly heard syllables in the Amis chanting tradition: Ho o hay yan, ho wa hay yo ho yan, ha he he i ye i hay yan ho o hay ye yan …

Suming says that as people sing in this manner, concentrating on sounds rather than words, they can experience a form of “pure music” that transcends the semantic frontiers of language. “True, heartfelt gladness or sadness can be communicated without needing to rely on specific words,” says the 32-year-old musician, who combines the traditional Amis chanting format with modern musical styles in his compositions.

In terms of impact on Taiwan’s mainstream ethnic Han culture, aboriginal musical influences include songs with ritual chanting, the repeated ho hai yan or na lu wan refrains of folk melodies, which were formerly called “mountain songs,” as well as quite a few songs in Mandarin, but imbued with a distinct aboriginal flavor. Suming’s music, like that of a number of Taiwan’s other indigenous pop artists, is part of a continued wave of smart aboriginal creativity that is helping to enrich and diversify Taiwan’s mainstream pop industry.

Kimbo, a member of Taitung County’s Puyuma tribe, was one of Taiwan’s earliest aboriginal pop music stars. During the late 1960s, when he was a student in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taipei, Kimbo drew songwriting inspiration from socially aware Western musicians including Bob Dylan. In the early and mid-1970s, Kimbo also worked together with other young activists to help promote the “sing our own songs” movement, which came about chiefly as a revolt against the then prevailing syrupy Mandarin pop music, or Mandopop, that largely borrowed foreign melodies. This landmark development prompted many university students to write songs that could be played easily on the guitar. By the late 1970s, their compositions, which were commonly referred to as “campus songs” or “folk songs,” had gained a strong following and secured considerable commercial success in the domestic record business.

During this formative period for modern pop music in Taiwan, in addition to creating memorable songs such as Child on the Back of a Water Buffalo (1972) and In a Flash (1975), Kimbo also performed Beautiful Rice Grains, which was written by Puyuma songwriter Baliwakes (1909−1988) in 1958. In an interview conducted for the release of his 2005 album, Kimbo recalled that singing Baliwakes’ old Puyuma song in the 1970s gave him the feeling of more fully connecting with his ethnic identity at a time when young people were eagerly searching for a voice they could call their own.

JR Zheng, a local producer who has helped craft several bestselling aboriginal albums, started working with indigenous singers in the mid-1990s, a time when Taiwan was quickly moving toward a more democratic and liberal society. Advancement of the rights of indigenous people and recognition of their contributions to society as a whole were among the most important of the many major social movements of the time. The music industry was also changing quickly in the 1990s. “Larger record companies were giving way to the emergence of independent bands and singers as local flavors and regional cultures became trendy,” recalls Zheng, who views the stronger musical input from indigenous communities as part of Taiwan’s general social development.

No discussion of indigenous music in Taiwan would be complete without including Puyuma songstress Amei because of her great popularity and large influence on the mainstream music market. Sisters, Amei’s first album, was released in December 1996, topped the charts in Taiwan for more than two months and went on to sell more than 1 million copies. Her 1997 album Bad Boy was even more popular, selling nearly 1.4 million copies and becoming one of Taiwan’s highest selling albums of all time.

Amei’s success, however, led to a major controversy over whether “aboriginal singers” were creating real indigenous music or just extending the Mandopop model, according to music critics. JR Zheng is a firm supporter of the authenticity of Amei’s music, saying that her songs represent a significant, brave interpretation of the indigenous spirit that has encouraged and inspired many young aboriginal people in Taiwan. In 2009, the singer emphasized her indigenous heritage by releasing an album entitled Amit, which is her ethnic Puyuma name. That album includes songs in Mandarin, Holo and, in the adaptation of old Puyuma tunes, her people’s mother tongue. Both a commercial and critical success, Amit was selected as one of the top 10 pop albums of 2009 by the Association of Music Workers in Taiwan.

Cultural Force

By 2000, indigenous music had emerged as a full-blown cultural force, a fact underscored at that year’s Golden Melody Awards, which honor Taiwan’s top singers and musicians. One of the annual event’s most surprising turns came when the prize for best Mandarin singer went to Pau-dull, a Puyuma from Taitung. With his first album Ho-hi-yan Ocean, Pau-dull, a policeman by profession, won that honor while competing against recordings by four famous Mandopop stars. Pau-dull also received the best composer award for writing a song entitled Myth, which was sung by his niece Samingad in the Puyuma language.

The indigenous wave continued at the 2000 Golden Melody Awards when Samingad was named best new artist for her first album, Voice of Puyuma, which contains songs in Mandarin, Myth and, like Kimbo before her, a cover of Beautiful Rice Grains. “Samingad can sing in a Mandopop style just as well as the aboriginal style, although she prefers the aboriginal style,” JR Zheng says. “You can call her aboriginal style pop, as some critics do. You can also see the acceptance of her aboriginal music as the reflection of a preference for different voices in the market.”

Yet another 2000 Golden Melody honor recognized Amis singer Difang Duana’s (1921−2002) album Across the Yellow Earth as the best ethnic folk music entry. Difang’s name may not be well known around the world, but his voice is, as a sample of his rendition of the Joyful Drinking Song, a traditional Amis polyphonic song, appears as part of Return to Innocence, a song released in 1994 by the European group Enigma. Return to Innocence was used in a television commercial for the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, thus providing a degree of exposure for Taiwan’s oldest musical tradition on the international stage. Enigma’s use of the sample sparked an initial dispute concerning intellectual property rights, but the case was later settled, with Difang receiving credit for his part on all further releases. Joyful Drinking Song also appears on Suming’s new album as a tribute to Difang.

Pau-dull’s Ho-hi-yan Ocean, Samingad’s Voice of Puyuma and Difang’s Across the Yellow Earth not only sold tens of thousands of copies each, but also found places on the list compiled by the Association of Music Workers in Taiwan of the island’s 100 best pop music albums from 1993 to 2005. Released in 2009, this list was a sequel to the highly acclaimed selection of the 100 best albums from 1975 to 1993 that was published by an NTU student group in 1994. Amei’s Sisters and Bad Boy, Pau-dull’s 2002 release Mother Earth and Kimbo’s 2005 album In a Flash also made the 1993−2005 top-100 list.

While there is a global trend to draw inspiration from the cultures of minority ethnic groups in the music and entertainment industries, Zheng believes that the inclusion of such cultural elements in mainstream works can sometimes become superficial and overly commercial. In contrast, he says, aboriginal works should be conceived as a totality based on an indigenous culture’s central values and strengths. “Indigenous peoples’ oral traditions—the unique ways they listen and speak—make them more adept at expressing their own culture in musical form,” Zheng says. “They are also more outspoken about their views and attitudes, many of which point to universal human values.”

The indigenous pop surge showed no signs of abating as the 2000s continued. Zheng continued working with aboriginal artists, helping in the production of Kimbo’s album In a Flash. That album included Pacific Wind, a song Kimbo wrote in 2001 for his Puyuma hometown of Taitung. Pacific Wind was selected as song of the year at the 2006 Golden Melody Awards and offers a good example of Kimbo’s longtime social activism, which stretches back to 1984, when he helped found the Taiwan Indigenous People’s Rights Development Association. Kimbo went on to lead the rights group, which insists that Taiwan’s indigenous inhabitants have a common Austronesian ancestry, rather than Chinese genealogy.

Suming not only gives solo concerts and offers explanations of the language used in his songs, but also performs as the lead singer and guitarist of Totem, a five-person band that includes four members of aboriginal descent. Totem was selected as the best band at the 2005 Hohaiyan Rock Festival, a major independent music event held annually on Taiwan’s northeast coast. Totem also made the shortlist for best band at the 2007 Golden Melody Awards for the group’s 2006 album I’m Singing over There, which was sung mostly in Mandarin, as well as at this year’s edition of the show for the 2009 album Shepherd Boy, also sung primarily in Mandarin.

Embracing, Expanding

While an increasing number of younger musical talents such as Pau-dull and Suming are embracing the influence of their culture, they are also seeking to expand upon it. Released this year, an eponymous album by Suming includes the songs Kapah (Young Guys) and Kayoing (Pretty Girls). Both are sung in the Amis language against a background of energetic techno music. “One stereotype about aboriginal music is that it’s a simple presentation of the human voice accompanied by no more than an acoustic guitar,” Suming says. “But there are different ways of expression appropriate to different times. As the development of aboriginal music continues, we shouldn’t always have to stay within the same restrictive rules.”

Production of Suming, the Amis musician’s first solo album, was partly funded by the Indigenous Peoples Cultural Foundation, a semi-official group that began operating in August 2009. Suming notes that the foundation initially seemed somewhat reluctant to sponsor his not-so-traditional style of music. “I thought that singing in Amis was ‘traditional’ enough,” he says. “I guess that they must’ve talked it over and eventually come to the same conclusion. The main thing is that instead of just being an object of anthropological study, aboriginal culture has to continue growing. That way it’ll be relevant to the everyday life of younger people.”

Suming is currently working toward the goal of holding a major concert consisting only of songs in the Amis language. When that day comes, the concert will feature native melodies and recall elements of indigenous life such as the tang tang tang of bells ringing on mountain roads. Such events can be an expression of Taiwan’s growing aboriginal confidence, Suming says, and of a movement that he hopes will continue to shape a livelier, more pluralistic culture.

Write to Pat Gao at kotsijin@gmail.com