Three Tune Tuesdays from Taiwan
I've seen ThreeTunesTuesdays #TTT hosted by @ablaze around for a long time but never took part in it. My recent trip to Taiwan has inspired me to share a few songs about my journey there.
The Alishan young girl
Alishan is one of Taiwan's most famous tourist location, and I went there for the first time during my recent trip. The area is a beautiful national park famous for, amongst things, the sunset, sea of clouds, and railway. Here's a taster for you which will be the subject of a future post.
Back to TTT. 1949 was turbulent times for Taiwan. The Nationalist Party retreated from China to Taiwan when they lost the Civil War to the Communists. Around the same time, a film was being made in Taiwan and one of the theme songs the Alishan young girl became very popular in both Taiwan and China in subsequent years. The song is about the beauty of the young girl from Alishan and the indigenous tribe. To many in mainland China, it represented their impression of Taiwan as they were not allowed to go there until many decades later.
The song sounds dated, as expected, as it is well over 70 years. The only thing that hasn't changed since then, is the relationship between China and Taiwan.
Days without cigarettes
Another song from Taiwan but related to China, something that many people don't know. The song is composed and performed by Tom Chang, a well known singer and music producer who died in a car accident aged 31 in 1997.
The lyrics was a prose written by Wang Dan, a prominent activist in China during the Tiananmen 4th June Massacre in 1989. Wang was a heavy smoker, and he wrote the prose during those turbulent times, to imagine how he would feel if he couldn't smoke. A little later, that became reality when he was jailed for taking part in the 4th June protest. When Tom Chang came across the prose, he was so moved by it and composed a song that became very popular in the Chinese speaking world, including China. Because of Wang's situation, no one in China knew he wrote the lyrics. When Wang was released from prison, Tom Chang went to China to visit Wang, and gave him USD4000, being the royalties for the song. That was the first and last time the two men met as Tom died a few years later.
This is the original version sang by Tom Chang. It's a very moving song in the sense that one can feel how helpless a person is, as reflected in the lyrics in the chorus
If you don't have a cigarette in your hand, strike a match.
to smoke your helplessness
I've added a rap version by Namewee a popular rapper from Malaysia. It's about smoking in his life and also pays tribute to Tom Chang. Let me know which version you like best out of the two.
Good night song
And finally,the last song I want to share with you is the Good night song. I met up with one of my oldest Hive friend @deanliu when I was back in Taiwan. We spent the whole afternoon in a café catching up on Hive and life. When the café was about to close, Dean suddenly asked me if I knew the song they were playing through the speaker. It was a very gentle song, sang by a guy.
Turns out this is called the Good Night song and is about, well ..... saying good night. The song is performed by Fei Yu-Ching, I've heard of the name before but not the song. Fei is a well know TV host and singer in the 70s till he retired a couple of years ago. In the old days, TV broadcast wasn't 24 hours, and when they finish for the day, the TV station would play this Good Night song to round off the day. Then many shops and restaurants adopted the same practice, playing the song as they were about to close as a cue for customers to leave. And with that, brought my meet-up with Dean to an end that day.
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Very cool! I love listening to music from all over the globe. I remember when I was a young adult I bought a shortwave radio so I could listen to the radio from all over the world. I was just checking out the Korean band TWICE the other day. Kind of feels like the female version of BTS. I like a lot of the Asian folk music that is out there. My mom has a music box my dad brought back from the Navy that I think has a traditional tune in it.
You listen to more K-Pop than I do!! I think I've only ever listened to a couple of BTS songs, and one was My Universe because it was on the radio all the time.
You were a Navy kid? Did you have to move my around a lot when you were young?
No, my dad did his three years then he was done. It was during the Vietnam war, so I wouldn't really consider it voluntary service.
It was great to know this kind of songs, I had never heard any of them, they seemed to me something mysterious and magnificent, each one has its own style and that is noticeable, a greeting, great list <3
They're all very old songs actually, even the newest one, the second song is over 30 years old. I'm glad to you got to listen to something different
I love Taiwanese music. It is beautiful and lovable to the hearing.
Really!! That's quite a niche genre! Who's your favourite Taiwanese singer?
Namewee raps are always top-notch. It can't be helped😁😁.
Namewee is Malaysian not Taiwanese
Oh, that's surprising. There was a Taiwanese music I heard through someone's playlist on OCD and I loved it. I must have been mistaken then
Great to see that Wang got his royalties, and great to see you participating in ttt!
I do like a lot of songs, but didn't want to just throw out random songs every week even if I like them. I figured this was a good opportunity to do it
Yeah it is always great to have a story behind what you throw out!
I din't knew about the #TTT ThreeTunesTuesdays. One thing that i love to do is to connect song lyrics, or even themes with things that I've seen, or that I'm thinking about! Great to listen to this "forgotten" songs (but for me it was my "premier"). I'll try to keep up with the thread!
Thank you for sharing this true gems with the community!
Maybe you can do a TTT as well! Will be interesting to listen to some Portuguese songs!
It is really super fun to be able to listen to music in languages I don't speak, because the music is still very enjoyable.
You asked, and I prefer the first version of Days without Cigarettes. Has a nicer sound to me.
Personally I like the first version as well, as that brings out the true feelings of the original prose
It's interesting to see you introducing songs that I grew up with in English in such an exotic way... 😂 Good job!
Thanks to you now I know more about Taiwanese life. The other week I was passing by Sogo on the way home then I suddenly noticed they were playing the song and it brought a little smile to my face 😊
I've never heard any tunes from Taiwan before, so its great to hear something different. I prefer that rap version of the smoking song. Nice selection and certainly something a bit different for #TTT !
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阿里山的姑娘美如水呀！ Whenever people in China quizzed me about Taiwan (this was late 80s/early 90s before they'd had a chance to go there themselves) they'd ask if I'd ever been to Alishan and when I said yeah they'd start singing this.
I've heard the Good Night Song before, I think. It sort of reminds me of the way they'd always play Kenny G's "Goin' Home" on the old green trains in China, but I'm not sure if they did that in Taiwan too.
I definitely prefer Namewee's take on the cigarette song, although Tom Chang has an amazing voice. I also love his song Fragile 玻璃心 which manages to be quite beautiful as well as hugely political.
Great selection!
Omg! I didn't expect anyone based outside of Asia to know about these songs! You've made my day Danielle!!!
玻璃心 was such a wicked song proving one doesn't have to rely on a single market to succeed, it was so fun listening to it , as it a lot of Namewee's songs.
Thanks so much for dropping by, I really appreciate it!
Ahhhh i wished we could have put you in touch with our friends in Alishan as they have a guest house there. 😞
Ahhhh i wished we could have put you in touch with our friends in Alishan as they have a guest house there. 😞
Ahhhh i wished we could have put you in touch with our friends in Alishan as they have a guest house there. 😞
Ahhhh i wished we could have put you in touch with our friends in Alishan as they have a guest house there. 😞
Ahhhh i wished we could have put you in touch with our friends in Alishan as they have a guest house there. 😞
But on a happy note this is the first I’ve heard of three tune tuesdays? Now my mind is spinning like a record ( but not as fast a as a cd) and actually I’m a bit loopy like a cassette 🤣
Ahhhh i wished we could have put you in touch with our friends in Alishan as they have a guest house there. 😞
But on a happy note this is the first I’ve heard of three tune tuesdays? Now my mind is spinning like a record ( but not as fast a as a cd) and actually I’m a bit loopy like a cassette 🤣
Cassette? What's that? 🤣 Just jk. I been there before
TTT is pretty interesting, and I have to confess I really should spend some time on it each week to listen to more different types of music.
Definitely some interesting cultural history there! I love TTT for global music and yu learn some interesting things too. That's pretty cool about his royalities - he could buy a fair few smokes with that.
I think it TTT is a great way to learn about different types of music. I don't spend enough time on it as I should really
No but it's hard to sit down and listen to heaps of music. I generally have time for one or two and maybe three on a really good day! It's quite the commitment...
Excellent, so good to see you taking part in Three Tune Tuesday! Alishan looks and sounds amazing, looking forward to the more detailed post on that.
I don't think I have every heard music from Taiwan before, so this post was really interesting and of course all the songs were new to me, which I enjoyed and I learned some history too, as I read and listened.
That Tom Chang does indeed sound very moving and heartfelt and it was cool to hear the modern interpretation from Namewee too.
The songs I shared are very different from the current Taiwanese pop as expected. I'd love to share more songs from Taiwan, will definitely do it again.
Thanks for hosting!
That'd be really cool, it's always great hearing songs from other countries which we get regularly here on #ttt You never know what treats you are in for each week!