Some of the salient features of Taiwanese-language pop songs are abundant sentimentalism, dense laments and sad stories about life, which are reflected in both the lyrics of many of the songs as well as the syrupy vocals.
Sadness is also a word that is often used to describe Taiwan's recent history, its days as a colony, the war, the 228 Incident and the White Terror, among other travails. Many Taiwanese recall a sad past and forget that during the 1930s and 1940s it was completely a different picture.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CHIEN WEI-SSU AND KUO CHEN-TI
Director Chien Wei-ssu (
"I've always thought that Taiwan's history is filled with sadness. But we've found out that there were times of jollity and youthfulness," Chien said.
Viva Tonal is a documentary tracing the emergence of Taiwan's record industry, as well as its pop songs. Through the music of Taiwan's earliest vinyl records and antique phonographs (provided by music collector Lee Kun-cheng (
The 1930s and 1940s were a time of big bands, ragtime jazz and ballroom dancing. Fashionable people would sit along boulevards drinking coffee, dancing the waltz and the fox trot, or just listening to their phonographs.
The lyrics to a Taiwanese-language song of the time, A Dance Era encapsulates this feeling: "We are the modern girls, free to go where we like/We don't have a care, don't know much about the world/We only know that these are modern times, and we should be sociable/Men and women in two lines, dancing the fox trot is my favorite."
Released in 1929, the song is up-beat and suitable for a fox trot. It was sung by Chun-chun (
The filmmakers interviewed old singers for their film, including Ai-ai (
The Columbia Record Company of Japan set up its Taiwan branch in Taipei's Ximenting in 1929 and hired local songwriters to publish Taiwanese-lang-uage records. Soon, Victor Records also set up a Taiwan branch.
As a result, perhaps, local people's recreational habits gradually changed from going to temple fairs or local operas, to listening to records and going to dances.
Woven into the narrative of the documentary is the rapid modernization which Taiwan experienced during these times, with the introduction of railways, electricity and running water. Men cut their queues and women stopped binding their feet. Such a new social atmosphere is reflected in the lyrics of A Dance Era.
Viva Tonal, which roughly means "great local sounds" in Italian, was printed on the old Columbia records. As for the film itself, it offers vivid images of Taiwan's history. The only criticism is that it could be tighter, as the narration of the history is a bit stodgy.
But the film does convey an image of happier times. Former president Lee Teng-hui (
Film Notes:
Directed by: Chien Wei-ssu and Kuo Chen-ti
Running time: 104 minutes
Taiwan Release: May 15, with a special English-subtitled screening on Wednesday, May 26, 10pm at the President Theater in Ximending
A few weeks ago I found myself at a Family Mart talking with the morning shift worker there, who has become my coffee guy. Both of us were in a funk over the “unseasonable” warm weather, a state of mind known as “solastalgia” — distress produced by environmental change. In fact, the weather was not that out of the ordinary in boiling Central Taiwan, and likely cooler than the temperatures we will experience in the near-future. According to the Taiwan Adaptation Platform, between 1957 and 2006, summer lengthened by 27.8 days, while winter shrunk by 29.7 days. Winter is not
Taiwan’s post-World War II architecture, “practical, cheap and temporary,” not to mention “rather forgettable.” This was a characterization recently given by Taiwan-based historian John Ross on his Formosa Files podcast. Yet the 1960s and 1970s were, in fact, the period of Taiwan’s foundational building boom, which, to a great extent, defined the look of Taiwan’s cities, determining the way denizens live today. During this period, functionalist concrete blocks and Chinese nostalgia gave way to new interpretations of modernism, large planned communities and high-rise skyscrapers. It is currently the subject of a new exhibition at the Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Modern
March 25 to March 31 A 56-year-old Wu Li Yu-ke (吳李玉哥) was straightening out her artist son’s piles of drawings when she inadvertently flipped one over, revealing the blank backside of the paper. Absent-mindedly, she picked up a pencil and recalled how she used to sketch embroidery designs for her clothing business. Without clients and budget or labor constraints to worry about, Wu Li drew freely whatever image came to her mind. With much more free time now that her son had found a job, she found herself missing her home village in China, where she
In recent years, Slovakia has been seen as a highly democratic and Western-oriented Central European country. This image was reinforced by the election of the country’s first female president in 2019, efforts to provide extensive assistance to Ukraine and the strengthening of relations with Taiwan, all of which strengthened Slovakia’s position within the European Union. However, the latest developments in the country suggest that the situation is changing rapidly. As such, the presidential elections to be held on March 23 will be an indicator of whether Slovakia remains in the Western sphere of influence or moves eastward, notably towards Russia and