If we say that
music is a special kind of air vibration,
an important path to understanding the place where we grew up,
and even to understanding the world,
then Taiwanese folk songs are
a journey to understand Taiwan,
to understand oneself,
and to understand the world.
Since its founding, CNEX has been guided by the mission of “Looking for Chinese 2.0”. It has brought together documentary filmmakers from across the strait, as well as from Hong Kong, Macau, and the broader Chinese-speaking world, to document the transformations and development of Chinese societies, strengthen ties and exchanges within the Chinese-speaking community, and produce documentary works that capture cross-strait emotions—such as The Rocking Sky and Golden Letters’ Journey Home. This time, using podcast as our medium, we will journey through fifty years of the Taiwanese folk song movement. In a musical diary woven together song by song, we will come to understand the path that Taiwan has walked over the past half century and beyond.
Scan the QR code to listen to the Podcast.
【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.
