Annual Lecture: Telling Taiwan’s Love Stories Through Old Songs
By Alison Lin Tsai
The long-waited and highly-expected WTIC Annual Lecture was on, supper successfully on 9/27, 2017.
Entering the auditorium located on the second floor of Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs, we noticed many more extra chairs were added to the original ones. Soon the auditorium was filled to bursting with so many music-and-old song lovers — WTIC members and guests. Amazingly, the annual lecture titled “Telling Taiwan’s Love Stories through Old Songs” attracted so large an audience.
Mme. Lee, WTIC president, introduced the lecturer, Jenny Wang Chen, and awarded a present to her and a red envelope to her daughter as the interpreter to the foreign ladies, in token of heartfelt thanks from all the members of WTIC.
As a researcher of Taiwanese folk songs and popular music, Mrs. Chen successfully gave the audience exposure to the songs of great vitality from 1910’s to 1980’s. Beginning with the well-known song — Songbie (送別), Mrs. Chen demonstrated what a song of great vitality is. Songbie originated from “Dreaming of Home and Mother” which is written by John Pond Ordway in 1851 and is a sentimental song of American civil war era. It had been popular in Japan since 1904. Hong Yi learned this song when he studied in Japan and wrote Chinese lyrics for it in 1915. This is what we know as Songbie today. In 1960, Haiyin Lin presented different lyrics version of Songbie in her book. After arranged by Shin-Chuan Chou, the new song, Chengnan Songbie (城南送別) was first performed in 2013, and has been one of the favorite choir songs since then. A song like this traveling in different time and space without being forgotten is definitely one of great vitality.
Elements of love songs change over time. Mrs. Chen selected three Taiwanese love songs representing different eras. In 1930s, the key element is Chinese literature. For example, “Hoping for the Spring Wind (望春風)” (1933) is motivated by “The Story of the Western Wing (西廂記)” which is a famous Chinese dramatic work in Yuan Dynasty. The song describes a young girl’s complicated feeling that she has a desire for love but is shy and embarrassed to speak out. In 1950s, western music is incorporated into Taiwanese love songs. “Green Island Serenade (綠島小夜曲)” (1954) is a representative one and is originally accompanied by orchestral strings. In addition to enjoying the beautiful melody, the love story behind this song is a bonus of the lecture. Most people connect this song with the prison at Lyudao and think it is a love song composed by a prisoner. The truth is that the green island is referred to Taiwan because it is glossy, green and prosperous. Actually, the song was written by Yingjie Pan for pursuing a romantic relationship with a high school girl. In 1970s, studying abroad in the U.S.A. was very popular. Therefore, the element of studying abroad is added to love songs in that era. Ching-His Weng composed “The Moon Speaks My Love for You (月亮代表我的心)” (1973) when he studied in America. This song has been interpreted by many singers, but the most famous one is Teresa Teng’s version released in 1977.
Galaxy Stars Show (1962-1977) was a big hit all over Taiwan. Mrs. Chen categorized the songs from Galaxy Stars Show to four types – Hong Kong- and Shanghai-based songs; missing hometown songs; movie theme songs; foreign melody with Chinese lyrics songs. Some examples of each category are summarized in the table below.
| Type | Example |
| Hong Kong- and Shanghai-based | Love without Ends (不了情),
Wait for You (痴痴地等) |
| Missing Hometown | My Home is on the Other Side of Mountains (家在山那邊),
Dance of Youth (青春舞曲) |
| Movie Theme | Moon over the West Attic (月滿西樓),
Farm Village’s Song (農村曲) |
| Foreign Melody with Chinese Lyrics | Under Banyan Tree (榕樹下)/ Japan,
My Lover’s Yellow Shirt (情人的黃襯衫)/ Korea, Tender Emotion, Raining Tears (多少柔情多少淚)/ USA, My Heart Holds Only You, not Him (我的心裡只有你沒有他)/ France, O Sole Mio (我的太陽)/ Italy. |
The lecture ended after briefly introducing representative songs from Campus Folk Rock era, because we were running out of time. One of the lecture highlights is that some of the songs were performed on site with accessories corresponding to the song’s situation. Taking “Bamboo Wrapped Rice Dumplings (燒肉粽)” as an example, the selling sound from some audience wearing Taiwanese hats and having towels round necks was very impressive. The scene was so vivid that the audience began clapping and cheering. With slides, CDs, DVDs, film, and live singings in different dialects and languages from different corners, Mrs. Chen led all the attendees into her lecture, so creatively organized. It was an absolutely knowledgeable and joyful lecture.