The national military band is to perform at the presidential inauguration ceremony on May 20, featuring Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese), Hakka and Aboriginal music, to celebrate the nation’s ethnocultural diversity, as well as to entertain international guests and local audiences, the Ministry of National Defense said.
The ministry’s joint military marching band, including members from the army, navy and air force, yesterday presented one of their final rehearsals at the Military Police Command Headquarters in Taipei.
Colonel Huang Sung-chuang (黃松創), supervising officer for the joint military marching band, said that the performances would deliver a unique selection of music and orchestration of marching formation, to highlight different cultures within the nation and within the armed forces.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Pundits have said that the marching band is incorporating president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) style into its program, as she is well-known for delivering speeches in the nation’s three major languages — Mandarin Chinese, Hoklo and Hakka, while she often refers to herself as coming from a Hakka family background, with Paiwan lineage from her maternal grandmother.
“For the band’s musical program, we chose folk songs that are familiar to Taiwanese to give foreign guests and the audience as a whole the idea that Taiwan is a multicultural society living in harmony. That can also be applied to the armed forces. Whatever their background, all the nation’s troops are determined to defend this homeland of ours,” Huang said.
Aboriginal cultural elements in the marching formation of military honor guards were showcased in the rehearsal, where a traditional hunting song was played and was accompanied by a movement that represented soldiers as Aboriginal warriors fighting in battle.
“The marching and musical program having Aboriginal cultural elements makes me feel special. It reminded me of the harvest festival in my home community,” said Army Private Fang Yung-cheng (方勇証), one of the honor guards in the marching band, who is a Puyuma Aborigine from Taitung County.
Fang, whose Puyuma name is Kulaihsao, said his army unit includes people from different cultural backgrounds, adding that everyone identifies with Taiwan as a whole and are doing their military service to defend their homeland.
He said that in addition to Puyuma, other Aboriginal cultures featured in the program include Sediq, Kavalan and Thao.
The military band to perform on May 20 is composed of 556 military personnel, with 256 musical band members and 300 honor guards in a marching formation with drill rifles.
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