【Podcast Introduction】

Around 1975, under an oppressive social atmosphere, some university students in Taiwan began composing new Chinese songs, performing them with acoustic guitars. These songs reflected their true feelings and expressed cultural attitudes, featuring the fresh style of Western folk music. Distinct from existing pop songs and popular hits, this movement sparked a wave of “singing our own songs” across an entire generation of young people. It ultimately reshaped the entire Taiwanese pop music scene and laid the foundation for the flourishing Chinese pop music landscape that spanned both sides of the strait, the three regions (Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong), as well as Singapore, Malaysia, and North America from the 1980s and 1990s onward. This movement came to be known in history as the Folk Song Movement.

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From February 14 to 16, 2025, the “50 Years of Folk Songs” concert was held at the Taipei Arena, with three consecutive performances. Jonathan Lee, Qi Yu, Kimbo Hu, Yang Xian, Li Jianfu, Yang Zujun, Pan Yueyun, and others all took the stage. They knew that without the Folk Song Movement back then, there would be no far-reaching Taiwanese pop music—nor themselves as artists. Whenever something has a beginning, it will be continuously marked by time. That is how folk songs are. How many people still remember the “Modern Folk Song Composition Concert” launched 50 years ago by Yang Xian, the father of Taiwanese folk songs, and the people and events that followed? Half a century has passed since that summer of 1975. In this special anniversary year, we are launching a special series to look back on this important chapter of contemporary local music and cultural life in Taiwan, and to explore the relationship between music and culture, music and intellectuals, and music and its times.