Music played for the deceased using the traditional nanguan (南管) and beiguan (北管) music forms celebrate the philosophy of life, morals and the values of Taiwanese, and therefore should not be discriminated against, an academic said on Saturday.
A video clip uploaded to the Internet on Friday showed a Taichung Municipal Taichung First Senior High School music teacher surnamed Lu (呂) yelling at a group of students for giving a presentation on nanguan and beiguan music, and a “soul guiding” music piece for their report on traditional Chinese instruments.
Soul guiding is a Taiwanese folk custom comprised of rituals and music, said Lin Mao-hsien (林茂賢), chairman of National Taichung University of Education’s Department of Taiwanese Languages and Literature.
Photo: CNA
Although it serves to guide the soul of the deceased along the road to Sukhavati — a pure land in Mahayana Buddhism — the tradition consoles the living and eases their worries, he said.
Soul guiding music embodies the Taiwanese folk beliefs of the immortality of souls, judgment after death and karma, Lin added.
Traditional nanguan and beiguan music has also been included in the 12-year national education curriculum guidelines and designated as part of Taiwan’s intangible cultural heritage, Lin said.
While the two music forms are frequently linked, beiguan is sung in Mandarin Chinese while nanguan is sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) in an accent associated with China’s southern Fujian Province, said Wu Su-hsia (吳素霞), a life-long promoter of nanguan.
Beiguan is performed using suonas, gongs and drums, as well as pipas and huqins, while nanguan only involves instruments that were played indoors, such as pipas, sanxians and erxian, she added.
Nanguan has been preserved independently from the music industry, as it is not marketed for profit, but is a kind of casual music for entertainment, Wu said.
“Although nanguan is not a type of performance art, it is a living antique of Taiwanese cultural arts,” she said.
Meanwhile, the school on Saturday said that it would provide counseling to the students involved in the incident with Lu.
However, the students who uploaded the video accused the school of forcing them to take down the video.
They said they hoped the school would investigate the incident and replace Lu.
Lu had not made any public response as of press time last night, while the school said that the incident was still being investigated.
Additional reporting by Ho Tsung-han
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