The most noteworthy thing about this year's Golden Melody Awards was not who won the big prizes. Instead, it was a statement by Lin Sheng-hsiang (
He distinguished himself by refusing to accept the two awards and donating his prize money to a number of agricultural community groups and individuals in a show of support for farmers.
Lin naturally left the show's hosts and the press dumbfounded, but his point of view and actions have received considerable support from the public, who it seems are considerably less starry-eyed than the media and music companies assume.
Lin was objecting to the fact that the awards are categorized by language. He thinks that the language of music crosses boundaries delineated by ethnicity, language and sex, and argues that the jury should have judged only the musical quality of performers, songs and albums.
The fuss calls to attention the actual value of the Golden Melody Awards' division of music into four categories based on language: Mandarin, Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Hakka and Aboriginal languages.
Superficially this might be regarded as respectful and protective of the creativity of the nation's different ethnic groups, but in effect it consolidates a cultural system that marginalizes minorities.
There are more meaningful measures that can be adopted if encouragement for minority musicians is the goal.
For example, the Hakka and Aboriginal affairs commissions could advance legislation that would provide wider support for Hakka and Aboriginal musicians. This would obviously extend to funding for music education.
Such support would be more effective than the Golden Melody Awards setting up special prizes for separate language groups, which seems to relegate music in minority languages to a secondary category in terms of quality or the degree to which it can be accepted as "popular."
Aboriginal and Hakka musicians in particular have been weakened by political, economic, historical and cultural factors, but the groups have never been lacking in creativity or skill.
Artists including Lin Sheng-hsiang, Chen Chien-nien (
What the separation of music into language categories does is lower the standards applied to artists working in minority languages and thus retard their development. In the long term it serves to consolidate the dominance of Mandarin and Hoklo and smacks of condescension.
As to the future of the Golden Melody Awards, the Government Information Office might also carefully consider this point: Is it appropriate that an event whose aim is to stimulate the market for pop music is paid for by taxpayers?
As former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) concludes his fourth visit to China since leaving office, Taiwan finds itself once again trapped in a familiar cycle of political theater. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has criticized Ma’s participation in the Straits Forum as “dancing with Beijing,” while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) defends it as an act of constitutional diplomacy. Both sides miss a crucial point: 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. The disagreement reduces Taiwan’s
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is visiting China, where he is addressed in a few ways, but never as a former president. On Sunday, he attended the Straits Forum in Xiamen, not as a former president of Taiwan, but as a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman. There, he met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Presumably, Wang at least would have been aware that Ma had once been president, and yet he did not mention that fact, referring to him only as “Mr Ma Ying-jeou.” Perhaps the apparent oversight was not intended to convey a lack of
A foreign colleague of mine asked me recently, “What is a safe distance from potential People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Rocket Force’s (PLARF) Taiwan targets?” This article will answer this question and help people living in Taiwan have a deeper understanding of the threat. Why is it important to understand PLA/PLARF targeting strategy? According to RAND analysis, the PLA’s “systems destruction warfare” focuses on crippling an adversary’s operational system by targeting its networks, especially leadership, command and control (C2) nodes, sensors, and information hubs. Admiral Samuel Paparo, commander of US Indo-Pacific Command, noted in his 15 May 2025 Sedona Forum keynote speech that, as
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) last week announced that the KMT was launching “Operation Patriot” in response to an unprecedented massive campaign to recall 31 KMT legislators. However, his action has also raised questions and doubts: Are these so-called “patriots” pledging allegiance to the country or to the party? While all KMT-proposed campaigns to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers have failed, and a growing number of local KMT chapter personnel have been indicted for allegedly forging petition signatures, media reports said that at least 26 recall motions against KMT legislators have passed the second signature threshold
RSS