A Celebration of Culture: Humanities Festival Highlights Taiwan’s Diversity
National Taiwan Normal University (NTNU) hosted the 2024 Humanities Season concert “Songs from the Fields” on May 15, featuring live performances by the Hakka band New San Gue Tai Band and the Taiwanese band Tsng-kha-lâng. The concert celebrated the richness of local cultures through music, creating a cross-cultural feast of literature and sound.
Dean Hsu Wen-wei of the College of Liberal Arts remarked that promoting local cultures and languages starts with familiar songs. The college encourages students to enroll in credit-bearing programs in Hakka, Taiwanese, and Indigenous languages, while also strengthening teacher training efforts. Dean Hsu emphasized that language learning should be integrated into everyday life, and that concerts offer an engaging way to promote the use of Hakka and Taiwanese languages.
The representative Hakka music band ” New San Gue Tai Band ”
” New San Gue Tai Band” was founded in 1997 and is one of the earliest groups dedicated to Hakka music creation. The band, composed of jazz musicians, blends traditional and modern styles. Their album “Yam Fung Ieu” won the Golden Melody Award for “Best Hakka Album.” Their performances span Hakka, Taiwanese, indigenous languages, and Mandarin pop, showcasing multiculturalism, with songs themed around land, culture, and ethnicity. Since its establishment, the band has released 10 CD albums, received multiple Golden Melody Award nominations, and had several songs selected as school mother tongue teaching materials.
The ” San Gue Tai Band” was founded in 1997 by leader and lead singer Teacher Yen Chih-wen. In 2008, Lin Yu-ting (the current leader and lead singer) took over, and the band was renamed ” New San Gue Tai Band,” cultivating young talents and becoming a significant benchmark in Hakka music. The band has a special affection for Taiwan’s humanities and land, and their music is closely related to land, culture, and ethnicity.
The emerging Taiwanese band “ Tsng-kha-lâng “
Tsng-kha-lâng consists of members from National Dong Hwa University. They specialize in cross-disciplinary creation of literature and music, drawing inspiration from Taiwanese folk tales and historical stories, combining folk and traditional music elements to create a diverse style. Their debut album “Iā Kuan Sûn Tiûnn” was nominated for the 2022 Golden Melody Award for Best New Artist. The interplay of stories and music creates a unique charm. Tsng-kha-lâng lead singer Dai Dai believes, “Tsng-kha-lâng is a band that writes stories,” using stories as the soul, combining Western musical styles with traditional Taiwanese folk elements to create a unique performance.
Tsng-kha-lâng’s performance is inspired by their original novels. Lead singer Chang, Chia-hsiang shared that their creative inspiration incorporates elements such as hometown religion, temple culture, and ghost stories. They fictionalized the character “Iā Kuan,” incorporating the image of the Taiwanese deity Dashiye to comfort wandering souls, and linked this image to the February 28 massacre and the White Terror in Taiwan, hoping the “Iā Kuan” could lead wandering souls back to their hometowns and loved ones.
After watching the performance, Dean Hsu Wen-wei expressed his shock at the two bands’ deep understanding of traditional culture. Chou Shih-hsuan, a student from the Department of Graphic Arts and Communications, also shared that the concert was a feast of language and musical diversity, sparking more curiosity about Hakka, Taiwanese, and other mother tongue.
Source: NTNU News（open in a new window）