Mountain Songs, Hakka Songs, Protest Songs: A Case Study of Two Hakka Singers from Taiwan

This article takes as its focus the creative works of veteran social activists Chen Yongtao and Lin Shengxiang, who use their music to promote environmental and cultural goals in Taiwan. In protesting against pollution and political exploitation, these artists express their love for their Hakka homeland using musical references to cultural or natural memories belonging to Hakka specifically, and to Taiwan generally. Drawing on creative practices that stem from Taiwanese social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, they connect their nature-conservancy message to the memories of earlier activists. While the environmental movement in which Lin and Chen engaged quickly developed, the environmental metaphors of their music became an integral part of the collective consciousness of Taiwan’s Hakka minority in their struggle against sociopolitical suppression.

本文摘要

本文探討兩位台灣客家歌手林生祥與陳永淘以環境與客家文化為主題的歌曲。在這些或做為社會運動抗議的一環或純抒情的歌曲裡面，兩位歌手所訴求的終不離對客家傳統生活的深刻感情，以及對客家原鄉的自然環境的關懷。透過特定的音樂形式與表演傳統，他們的聲音無可否認的再度喚醒我們對台灣六零年代、七零年代的文化社會運動及其意涵的眾多記憶與感觸。在現在，一個屬於他們的時刻裡，他們的身影與歌聲中的隱喻成為抗爭運動的先導，帶領著來自土地的客家鄉親與化身於隱喻中的先人的靈魂前進到一個他們所不熟悉而令人手足無措的政治角力場合 ...