A news was broadcast in the morning: as the folk song is about to enter the 50th anniversary next year, the "Chinese Musicians Exchange Association", a non-governmental organization spontaneously established by Taiwanese musicians, will sing the "Folk Song Fifty" concert for three consecutive days at the Taipei Arena Stadium built at the beginning of this century from February 14, 2025, inviting more than 50 singers and singing more than 100 tracks.
Taipei Arena Stadium▲
Since June 6, 1975, Yang Xian, the father of modern folk songs after the 50s, held a modern folk song creation concert in Zhongshan Hall in Taiwan, and since then modern folk songs have been unveiled, and it has gone through half a century.
According to the list of singers exposed by the author's search on the Internet, the invited singers span different generations of folk singers, including Yang Xian, Wu Chuchu, Ye Jiaxiu, Li Zongsheng, Qi Yu, Pan Yueyun, Hu Defu, Li Jianfu, Zhao Shuhai, Wang Menglin, Tai Zhaomei, Wang Xinlian, Fan Guanghui, Li Lifen, Lin Jiarong/Xu Shujuan Duet, Su Lai, Huang Zhongkun, Yan Peichen, Ding Xiaowen, Fan Yiwen, Dong Yunchang, Acoustic Guitar Choir, Wan Fang, Huang Yunling, Yin Zhengyang, Yao Daiwei, Yu Guanhua, Liao Baiqing, Lin Longxuan, Zeng Shuqin, Xie Yuwei, Zhou Bingjun, Zheng Yi, Jin Zhijuan, Lin Qionglong, Zhou Zhiping, Lai Peixia, Yang Zujun, Jiang Nianting and Yang Yaodong and other singers.
Li Zongsheng▲
Back in the 70s of the last century, Taiwanese folk songs (folk songs) were all the rage, and the Taiwanese folk song movement was surging.
At that time, there was a creative wind of self-playing and singing in the music scene, and the folk song restaurant culture also became popular. In a dimly lit folk song restaurant, guitars and keyboards sounded, and young singers played and sang to themselves on a small stage; The audience listened quietly to the song while drinking drinks. In the eighties and nineties, there were more than 200 folk song restaurants from north to south in Taiwan at its peak.
The folk song restaurant is also the cradle of Taiwanese pop music, Zhou Huajian, Zhang Yu, Huang Xiaohu, Zhang Yusheng, Li Zongsheng, You Hongming, mortal duet, Zhou Zhiping, Power Train, Xiao Jingteng, etc., have all been honed on the stage of the folk song restaurant.
With the change of the times, Taiwan's folk song restaurants are no longer in the scene, and the most famous wooden boat opened 14 branches at its peak and closed in 2003. Taipei's only folk song restaurant, "Street Corner No. 2", also closed in 2018. At present, there is only one "gypsy" folk song restaurant in Taichung.
Zhou Huajian▲
Have you ever remembered these people? Zhang Yusheng, Luo Dayou, Wang Jie, Zheng Zhihua, Meng Tingwei, Qi Yu, Pan Yueyun......
"Walking Barefoot on the Ridge" is a song in the first album "Ye Jiaxiu" by Ye Jiaxiu, a famous singer-songwriter born in the 50s, in 79.
On a country road at dusk
Scattered all over the place, the remnants of the sun
The straw is also draped in a soft golden silk shirt
In the distance, there are frogs chirping melodiously
The branches are cicadas singing
Cooking smoke also curled with it
The evening breeze drifted lightly
Walking barefoot on narrow ridges
Listen to the crackling of footsteps
Accompanied by a cordial call
Take me back to my childhood...
Ye Jiaxiu ▲
The above "Walking Barefoot on the Ridge" is a song from the famous post-50s singer-songwriter Ye Jiaxiu's debut album "Ye Jiaxiu" in 79. This Taiwanese campus song was popular in China in the 80s.
The first time I heard this song, I liked it, and I always had the scenery of the northern countryside in my youth, and it was like a beautiful picture, deeply embedded in my mind.
Scenery of the northern countryside ▲
I also started writing an essay "Four Seasons in the Northern Countryside":
That was in the sixties...... The villages in the township look at each other from afar, the chickens and dogs smell each other, the ten miles and eight towns are connected by dirt roads, the houses in the countryside are adobe walls and flat roofs, poplars, willows, and locust trees are planted in the front yard of every house, the whole village is surrounded by green, the sky is blue, the sun is hot and spicy hugging the land, the white clouds are floating in the sky, there is a dark cloud covering the sun in the sky, the scenery is very special, you will see: the village where the dark clouds cover the sun is dark green, and the village in the dark green looks at the village in the distance under the sun, the trees are extraordinarily green, The earthy yellow houses are hidden in the bright green, and the earthy yellow country roads are like a golden ribbon winding into the distance, and the children in the village are holding dandelion umbrellas in their hands, blowing and chasing, jumping and playing, and the natural and quiet time of my hometown has since been loaded into my young memories......
In spring, the path is lively, the grass on both sides grows freely, what gray cabbage, Lala vine, trumpet flower, scramble out of the ground, accidentally it is already green paved with the path......
In summer, the south wind rose overnight, the wheat was covered with yellow, and the season of grabbing food from the dragon's mouth arrived. As soon as the sky was hazy, the path was busy, and the members of the wheat cutting club hurried on the road with their sickles, sweating like rain in the wheat field......
In autumn, the cotton is snow-white, the corn is golden, and the sorghum is fiery red. The dates are also ripe, the harvest is abundant, and the people are busier. The adults were relieved to say: Autumn is over. I also went to the sweet potato field......
Winter is coming, the northwest wind is cold, the villages in the north seem to be exceptionally quiet, people are all on the hot kang cats winter, only the elders still have to go to the market......
Winter in the North▲
Do you remember "Let's Swing the Sculls" you learned in elementary school music class? and the song "Listen to Mom Tell Me About the Past", "The moon passes through the clouds like white lotus, and the evening breeze blows bursts of joyful songs......"
The first Taiwanese campus song I heard was "Walking on a Country Road". At that time, I didn't know that the original singer of this song was Liu Wenzheng, who was known as the "idol ancestor" of the Chinese music scene. I only know that together with "Childhood", "Grandma's Penghu Bay", "Light Rain in March", "Orchid Grass" and so on, which became popular one after another, they are collectively referred to as "Taiwan Campus Songs". Later, Teresa Teng's songs were also sung in the streets and alleys. In the early 80s, her songs were called "Glamorous Sounds".
"Let's Swing the Sculls"▲
Later, the theme songs of "Shanghai Tang" and "Huo Yuanjia" were all the rage.
The streets and alleys are filled with Cantonese songs such as "Waves, Waves" and "The Great Wall Never Falls"; "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" fascinated us, and "Iron Heart" became our favorite. At that time, Teresa Teng's singing was broadcast in the streets and alleys, and Li Chunbo's "Xiaofang" and "There is a girl named Xiaofang in the village" sang all over the streets and alleys. There is a little Fang in every alley, and there is also a little Fang in every child's heart. Taiwan's campus songs such as "Walking on the Country Road" and "Memories in the Light Rain" have suddenly become rich and affectionate.
"Walking on a Country Road"▲
With a Walkman. I bought at least one or two hundred boxes of tapes, and a few dollars per box.
Zheng Zhihua's "Sailor" and "Lights on the Stars" are red through half the sky. The children blushed and shouted, "He said what this pain is in the wind and rain, wipe away the tears and don't ask why." There are also songs such as "Tell You Gently", "Smiley Face", "Wine on September 9", "Chinese Folk Song" and other songs that adults and children can sing, and the singer Jacky Cheung's "Love Network", "Kiss Goodbye" and "With You All the Way" are in full swing, Zhou Huajian's "Flower Heart", Wang Jie's "A Game, a Dream" is particularly appropriate, accompanied by the sadness and helplessness of adolescence, entangled with our dreams.
"A Game, a Dream"▲
Suddenly, a northwest wind blew, and the songs of Hang Tianqi and Fan Linlin resounded all over the campus.
At that time, the student union organized a theatrical performance, and I still remember that the dance danced in the class was the accompaniment of "Xintianyou". In 1998, the song "Meet in 1998" "opened the heart and stripped away the shyness of spring...... You greet me with warm eyes the joy I brought from yesterday" has awakened the ears of many young people. This song sung by Faye Wong and Na Ying has a beautiful melody and beautiful lyrics, breaking the straightforward expression of ordinary pop songs, and the breath of spring is rushing to the face. As soon as it appeared at the Spring Festival Gala that year, it swept the streets and alleys.
"Meet 1998"▲
Later, I listened to Alan Tam, Leslie Cheung, Meng Tingwei, Ren Xianqi, Jacky Cheung, Lao Wolf and Ye Bei's campus folk songs.
Female singer Chen Shuhua and Jackie Chan sang "Clear My Heart", "When I Wake Up from a Dream", and Huang Yingying's "Crying Sand" is also a big hit. In the year of graduation, when I was about to go our separate ways, I was naturally in a bad mood, and the most listened to were Chen Sheng's "Keep Your Sadness to Yourself", "Kite" and "No Longer Let You Be Lonely", these songs will sound one night after another.
"Clearly Confess My Heart"▲
Recently, I happened to be reading a trilogy by 70-year-old film actress and prose writer Brigitte Lin ("In the Window and Outside the Window", "Clouds Go to the Clouds", "In Front of the Mirror").
Thinking of Liu Wenzheng, who passed away more than a year ago, I thought: In fact, our generation, at least myself, is about pop songs, literature, love, and the world...... Many of the enlightenments came from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
Lin Qingxia▲
I still remember that one of the favorite publications of many young people was "Selected Taiwan-Hong Kong Literature".
In a magazine without a cover, I read Sanmao's "Stone Record" for the first time, knew the pen name of Sanmao, and knew that "prose can be written like this". Her essay, like the prose we read in our domestic textbooks, compares the bees on the camellia to the industrious people, and the children's faces are as simple as the big apples...... Poles apart.
In the following years, I read almost all the works of Sanmao and Qiong Yao, as well as Xi Murong, Yu Guangzhong, Jin Yong, Liang Yusheng, Long Yingtai, Li Ao...... It was in their works that I felt the beauty of Chinese culture on both sides of the strait, and even saw a different world.
"Selected Taiwan-Hong Kong Literature"▲
I still remember that when I first went to Taiwan more than 30 years ago, on a leisure platform near Taroko National Park, I accidentally saw a poem by contemporary painter, poet and essayist Xi Murong embedded in a water plaque, between heaven and earth, which was really moving.
"The banyan tree by the playground is crying out for summer...... "What a beautiful picture, before this song "Childhood", I didn't know how to describe summer in this way. As a child who grew up in the north of China, at that time, I didn't even know what a "banyan tree" was, but I could feel the beauty of childhood in a song.
Essayist Xi Murong ▲
"I came from the mountains and brought orchids and grass ......" Back then, many young people in China still didn't know who Hu Shi was? However, this song has a simple rhyme, and you will be able to sing it once you listen to it, and you can also feel the true meaning and beauty of the song.
The light rain in March was dripping and dripping
It goes on and on
The creek in the valley is blah-la
The flow of bang and la la non-stop
For whom the light rain floats, and for whom the creek flows
With a full of bleakness......
"Childhood"▲
Yes, until now, every time it rains in spring, this song "Little Rain in March" will naturally emerge in my mind and in my heart.
Two days ago, I was traveling in South Africa and happened to encounter a winter rain. I held a small broken umbrella, and on the road, I was really humming "It's raining, I see everyone is running, horn taxi, their business is very good......
"Light Rain in March"▲
This is "Scene in the Rain". One of my favorite Taiwanese campus songs.
In this song, for the first time, I knew that there was such a thing as a "taxi", but I didn't know what it was, after all, there was no such thing as a taxi in the north back then. One word I also learned was "impromptu".
Taxi▲
Last year, I read an article saying that a foreign research institute has done a survey of people of all ages, and a person's favorite song is usually the song they liked when they were young (14-22 years old).
I haven't done any research, but I am a sample, and it seems to make some sense. The elders must like red songs, which have accompanied them in the burning years of their youth. What the new students like may be Jay Chou's generation.
When I was young▲
For our generation, it may be these Taiwanese campus songs. To this day, they remain irreplaceable classics.
The fall of Liu Wenzheng, the superstar of the first generation of Taiwanese campus songs, may represent the end of an era. Many people are lamenting the end of their youth, except for thinking that "Liu Wenzheng is 70 years old, and he is still a little early", I don't have any special sighs and feelings.
The first generation of Taiwanese campus songs▲
Or maybe I've learned to accept any impermanence in life, and be prepared to accept any impermanence.
Be a singer, a star, an artist...... Actually, there is an advantage. Their songs, their images, and their works will not be lost with the passing of life, as long as they are good works, they will be classics forever.
"Returning to the Garden and Pastoral Home" [ Wei Jin ] Tao Yuanming
There is no vulgar rhyme, and sex loves hills and mountains.
fell into the dust net by mistake and went for thirty years.
The birds love the old forest, and the pond fish thinks about the old place.
Open up the wilderness in the south and return to the garden.
There are more than ten acres of square houses and eight or nine thatched houses.
The elm willow shades the back eaves, and the peach and plum Luo Hall are in front of the hall.
Ambiguous and distant village, smoke in the ruins.
The dog barks in the deep alley, and the rooster cries in the mulberry tree.
There is no dust in the courtyard, and there is spare time in the empty room.
After being in the cage for a long time, you can return to nature.