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 not too long ago to attempt to remind individuals of the precarious geopolitical state of affairs through which 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 finest 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 overseas pressure.” 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 shocked 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 – speak in regards to the information, whereas a sure large, dangerous wolf lurks within the background.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: (As character, by way of interpreter) You guys actually suppose 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 house.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: (As character, by way of interpreter) However what can we do? We’re simply regular individuals. What energy do we have now?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #2: (As character, by way of interpreter) Only one abnormal particular person has no energy. However what about 10,000 abnormal individuals, 100,000, 1,000,000? 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 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 hold their hard-won democracy protected. They weren’t the one artists who anxious 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 thing burns to ashes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “2045”)
YANG SHU-YA: (Rapping in non-English language).
VALENTINE: She imagines Taiwan as a struggle zone underneath 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 outcome, she says, is barely a handful dare to talk up overtly. However Yang says she has little 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 fun and protest for so long as they will.
For NPR Information, that is Ashish Valentine in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Copyright © 2025 NPR. All rights reserved. Go to our web site phrases of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for additional data.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This textual content is probably not in its ultimate type and could also be up to date or revised sooner or later. Accuracy and availability could differ. The authoritative file of NPR’s programming is the audio file.
