One of the most engaging Aboriginal artists, if not the most famous, Biung is appearing tomorrow night at the Riverside Music Cafe.
Wang Hong-en (
PHOTO COURTESY OF RIVERSIDE MUSIC CAFE
More recently, Biung has channeled his fondness for writing about his ancestral heritage into a nightly television program highlighting the treatment of Aborigines during the Japanese occupation of Taiwan. The program airs nightly at 8pm on public television.
With homegrown lyrics that both emphasize his ethnic background and are a diary of his childhood experiences, most of his songs are written in the Bunun language. "Bunun is my mother tongue so when I am singing about my experiences it seems appropriate to sing in my native language."
At 28, Biung has already released two albums in addition to receiving a Golden Melody Award for Best Non-Mandarin Male Singer in 2002. His first album, The Hunter, was completed while he was still a college student and recorded entirely in his native language. In order to garner a larger audience, however, Biung decided to include songs in Mandarin on his second album, Biung.
What sets Biung apart from his Aboriginal contemporaries is his style, which marries traditional Bunun music with an upbeat pop-esque sound. While he denies that Taiwanese Mando-pop has had any large effect on his music, he does confess to listening to Western pop artists such as Michael Jackson and Linkin Park.
"I don't put any limitations on the kind of music I listen to, but musically the biggest inspiration to me has been traditional Bunun music.
Although the audience can't understand all of his lyrics, it doesn't stop crowds of people from packing in to see Biung perform live.
Geddy Lin (
Whether it's salvation from another night at a monster club in Taipei or simply to change things up, Biung provides a good introduction to one of Taiwan's unique Aboriginal sounds.
Performance notes:
Biung will perform tomorrow night at Riverside Music Cafe
Tickets cost NT$300.
For details call (02) 2368 7310.
One of the biggest sore spots in Taiwan’s historical friendship with the US came in 1979 when US president Jimmy Carter broke off formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan’s Republic of China (ROC) government so that the US could establish relations with the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Taiwan’s derecognition came purely at China’s insistence, and the US took the deal. Retired American diplomat John Tkacik, who for almost decade surrounding that schism, from 1974 to 1982, worked in embassies in Taipei and Beijing and at the Taiwan Desk in Washington DC, recently argued in the Taipei Times that “President Carter’s derecognition
This year will go down in the history books. Taiwan faces enormous turmoil and uncertainty in the coming months. Which political parties are in a good position to handle big changes? All of the main parties are beset with challenges. Taking stock, this column examined the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) (“Huang Kuo-chang’s choking the life out of the TPP,” May 28, page 12), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) (“Challenges amid choppy waters for the DPP,” June 14, page 12) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) (“KMT struggles to seize opportunities as ‘interesting times’ loom,” June 20, page 11). Times like these can
June 23 to June 29 After capturing the walled city of Hsinchu on June 22, 1895, the Japanese hoped to quickly push south and seize control of Taiwan’s entire west coast — but their advance was stalled for more than a month. Not only did local Hakka fighters continue to cause them headaches, resistance forces even attempted to retake the city three times. “We had planned to occupy Anping (Tainan) and Takao (Kaohsiung) as soon as possible, but ever since we took Hsinchu, nearby bandits proclaiming to be ‘righteous people’ (義民) have been destroying train tracks and electrical cables, and gathering in villages
Dr. Y. Tony Yang, Associate Dean of Health Policy and Population Science at George Washington University, argued last week in a piece for the Taipei Times about former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) leading a student delegation to the People’s Republic of China (PRC) that, “The real question is not whether Ma’s visit helps or hurts Taiwan — it is why Taiwan lacks a sophisticated, multi-track approach to one of the most complex geopolitical relationships in the world” (“Ma’s Visit, DPP’s Blind Spot,” June 18, page 8). Yang contends that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has a blind spot: “By treating any