Chapter 9 [Preface] The Age of Reflection

Because of the distorted appearance of the pop music industry, it has lost the respect of intellectuals and even the general public. Taiwan's modern pop music has lost more than it gained in the past 30 years. The tomorrow in the song 15 years ago is obviously not better. I look forward to this being an age of introspection. -- Li Zongsheng, a veteran musician in Taiwan Taiwan's modern folk song movement is also called the folk song revival movement, referred to as the folk song movement. The folk song movement is often seen as a continuation of the American folk song revival of the 1960s.The history and responsibility of a movement related to culture do not require too much commentary, and we know its heavy weight. In November 2006, Taiwan's "Vision" magazine published "We Wait for the Spring of Culture and Swallows" written by Zhang Dianwan. The opening article said: "During the 2000 election, many cultural people look forward to a new cultural century. The revolving door of cultural leaders has brought Taiwanese culture into an unprecedented predicament, and the government-led cultural policy for many years has left Taiwan's creative people with no joy." Zhang Dianwan sighed through the mouth of cultural person Luo Fumei: "I want to do something, but where is the opportunity?" On December 1, 2006, Taiwan's "Minsheng Daily" (founded in 1978) officially ceased publication due to the impact of entertainment gossip.

It cannot but be said that this is a worrying situation.Taiwan, a land of culture and art that has produced so many far-reaching influences, how far is her spring and swallows?Tracing back to the source and talking about folk songs, on the surface it seems to be nostalgic.From another perspective, remembering the history may be able to better grasp the future, although this is closer to a luxury. Even Taiwanese may not know the history of the folk song movement very well.As for the mainland, not everyone who listens to Taiwanese pop music knows about the folk song movement, and not everyone who knows about the folk song movement understands what it is all about.Many people have never heard of Yang Xian, Li Shuangze and Hu Defu. Many people don't know that the first singer of "Descendants of the Dragon" is Li Jianfu. Many people think that the folk song movement is just a Taiwanese school song, but it is not.

Or not quite. I once heard Li Shouquan introduced by a radio station in Beijing, saying that he was a representative of the Taiwanese folk song movement in the 1970s.Wrong, folk songs are not even equal to ballads. Another interview with Fei Yuqing in Beijing, he mentioned that the repertoire of the concert will include folk songs, such as "Descendants of the Dragon", "Night on the Grassland", "Boat Song" and so on.I told him: the folk songs of the mainland and the folk songs of Taiwan are two different concepts. For example, "Night on the Grassland" is a folk song, and "Descendants of the Dragon" is a school song.Fei Yuqing was a little hesitant, so how should we classify them?Why is "Night on the Grassland" classified as a folk song by Taiwanese?This is because at that time, many folk singers in Taiwan would sing some traditional folk songs for the purpose of introduction in addition to composing.The unique classification of the unique era cannot be explained clearly in a sentence or two.

So what exactly are Taiwanese folk songs?To put it simply, in the mid-1970s, among young intellectuals in Taiwan, especially students, a music form emerged, in which they wrote their own lyrics, composed their own music and played and sang with an acoustic guitar. Western music in the music scene and Mandarin pop music featuring "era songs".With the help of the literary and art circles, as well as the dissemination of concerts, records, radio stations, and television stations, this music form has been widely recognized by the society, and most of the listeners of pop music have changed from adults to young students.

This "sing your own song" movement initiated by college students and intellectuals is Taiwan's modern folk song movement. Such an introduction is still not enough to explain what a folk song is.However, the importance of folk songs can be summed up in one sentence: it is the most important stage in the history of Taiwanese pop music - the emergence of modern folk songs marks the beginning of Taiwan's own pop music, the campus songs developed in its heyday, It is a new starting point for Taiwan and even the entire Chinese pop music.I would like to ask, among all the places where Chinese pop music is created, which one is not deeply influenced by it?Regarding the definition of folk songs, "Modern Chinese Dictionary" explains: Folk songs refer to poems or songs that are orally passed down among the people, and the names of the authors are mostly unknown.This interpretation of folk songs is consistent with the rationale of the traditional folk song theorists of Taiwan’s academic schools to criticize the folk song movement—folk songs are not created by a single person, they must be produced by the people, and once they are spread, they will evolve into collective creation, and It must have been passed on orally for a considerable number of years before it was written down.

Looking back now, "modern folk songs" has become a fixed usage.Whether it is a folk song in the traditional sense or whether it is modern is not so important anymore.The important thing is that the young people at that time did "have their own songs to sing".Singing your own songs may not seem like a luxury on the surface, but in that era, there were no works that could truly represent the voices of young people.It was these young people who picked up the guitar in their hands, wrote their own songs, and sang their own songs until they sang for an era. This era should not be forgotten.

From the mid-1970s to the end of the early 1980s, Taiwan's modern folk song movement developed three main lines: first, the "Modern Chinese Folk Songs" started in 1975, represented by Yang Xian, Zhao Shuhai, Han Zhenghao, Wu Chuchu, etc. The development of the first main line can continue to the period of campus songs; the second is the "Tanjiang-"Xia Chao"" represented by Li Shuangze, Hu Defu, and Yang Zujun that began in 1976. Hu Defu is still active on the battlefield for the purpose; the third is Li Jianfu, Jin Tiezhang, Shi Xiaorong, Su Lai, Liang Hongzhi, Cai Qin, Qi Yu, Zheng Yi, Wang Hailing, Bao Meisheng, Tai Zhaomei, Shi Biwu and others since 1977 The "campus songs" made the folk song movement really shine.

1975 was the beginning of the folk song movement in Taiwan, and also the beginning of the era of Yang Xian, Li Shuangze, and Hu Defu. Yang Xian immigrated to the United States in 1982 and worked in acupuncture and moxibustion of traditional Chinese medicine. In 2002, he appeared in the "Campus Folk Song Story" concert and won warm applause from the audience.Fortunately, he left us the banner of the folk song movement - "Chinese Modern Folk Song Collection", so that we still have sound materials that we can rely on thirty years later.Li Shuangze died of drowning in 1977 when he was just 28 years old.He composed and sang the poem, which was adapted from the poem of the same name by Taiwanese poet Jiang Xun, which was banned due to his political inclinations. Like Li Shuangze's "Beautiful Island", no recording was left; , cultural efforts, but he has always insisted on not publishing any albums, and he did not release his first solo album "Hurrying" until 2005, when he was 55 years old...Because of these people, the starting point of early modern folk songs is very high, among them The national consciousness embodied has made it more than just a musical form.The modern folk song movement is the product of comprehensive changes in politics, economy, culture, etc. It is also regarded as a symbol of Taiwan's young people's opposition to cultural hegemony.

There are also views that the modern folk songs before commercial intervention and the later campus songs do not belong to the category of popular music.Its final end, whether it is its decline or its withdrawal from the stage of history after completing its own mission, cannot deny its profound influence on Taiwanese culture, Taiwanese and even Chinese pop music. The power of folk songs is not only that, it has rewritten the lives of many people, and even the trajectory of their lives.At that time, many folk singers such as Yang Xian, Li Shuangze, Hu Defu, Yang Zujun, Wu Chuchu, Zhao Shuhai, Han Zhenghao, Li Jianfu, Shi Xiaorong, Qi Yu, Bao Meisheng, Wang Hailing, Tai Zhaomei, Shi Biwu, Chen Mingshao, Zheng Yi, Wang Menglin, Yang Fangyi, Xu Xiaojing , Lin Jiarong, Xu Shujuan, Huang Dacheng, Yang Yaodong, etc. are all popular singers among young students, and their works are still circulating today.At the same time, some singers of Mandarin pop music have turned to the field of campus songs, such as Liu Lanxi, Pan Anbang, Fei Yuqing, Liu Wenzheng, and Yinxia.

The biggest influence of modern folk songs on Mandarin pop music is that after the folk song movement, many folk singers worked behind the scenes and became the backbone of Taiwan's record industry. Luo Dayou, Hou Dejian, Ye Jiaxiu, Li Taixiang, Su Lai, and Li Shouquan emerged , Li Zongsheng, Liang Hongzhi, Li Ziheng and a large number of outstanding musicians continued to influence the creation of Mandarin pop music for the next 20 to 30 years. However, "there is no permanent winner in the pop market". Now there are many types of pop music, and the styles are changeable. Pop music is increasingly catering to the fast food culture. More and more singers and songs are fleeting.While record companies pay more and more attention to planning and packaging, there are fewer and fewer good music, and pop music has been thoroughly entertained.Faced with this situation, Li Zongsheng, who became famous in the acoustic guitar choir in the era of folk songs and later became a senior music producer, songwriter, and singer in the Chinese pop music scene, once said: I deeply feel that pop music is a misunderstood industry, or people don’t know it at all. understand it.

It is impossible to know when it last appeared on the art page, and the general public can only approach the pop music world from the narrow perspective of entertainment media.We are seeing that under the leadership of the entertainment media, we are gradually losing our autonomy. It has evolved into something like a vassal, and it is the same provider of dirty topics as politicians and gossip news. --Li Zongsheng's "The Age of Introspection" (preface to the second edition of Zhang Zhaowei's "Who Sings His Song Over There" in 2003) Will this become an age of introspection?What is certain is that this is an era with a lot of nostalgia.Regarding nostalgia, the best comment I have ever heard is from a German painter: I am not trying to be nostalgic, I just want to remember. This is also a kind of memory: in Taiwan, in the mainland, and overseas, there are still many ordinary people who pay attention to the past of the folk song movement; supporters.They keep looking back on the classics of that period, and the records of the folk song era are still reprinted and will be passed down for a long time. Folk songs have not been lost, and those works are still the permanent memories of youth and growth of generations of young people with an age span of more than 30 years.The voice of solidarity with folk songs has never stopped--Cai Qin, Pan Yueyun, Tong Ange, Xu Jingchun, Yu Taiyan, Sylvia Chang, Chen Shuhua, Huang Yunling, Jin Zhijuan, Wan Fang, Li Bihua, Huang Zhongkun, Lin Huiping, Cai Xingjuan, Huang Yingying, Lily Duet, Sesame & Longan, South Duet... Since 2002, with the launch of a series of activities to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the folk song movement, many folk singers have stood on the stage again to reproduce the style of the year. Almost every concert is a chorus, long-lost people, The long-lost voice brings more than just touching. For the audience, what they are doing is a coming-of-age ceremony with a complete review.Especially those younger generations who did not catch that train, admired the previous scenery and left countless sighs.