Old Article: Taiwanese Popular Music from the End of World War II through the 1960s

As I hinted at in the introduction to a previous post, the link to my article "Taiwanese Popular Music from the End of World War II through the 1960s" on the Taiwan Culture Portal seems to be dead (indeed, the Taiwan Culture Portal doesn't seem to exist anymore, at least not in its original format - the original web address now appears to be that of the main website for the Ministry of Culture, though I didn't explore it in any depth). Since I was far to busy to write anything new for November (in fact this post was backdated a few days to ensure I had something online for that month, as I didn't really post it until a few days into December), this seemed like a good time to post the original article here, though with the caveat that it is now over ten years old, and could use some serious updating in light of things I've learned since. I did make a few minor changes, but not as many as I would have if I had more time.

Sixty years ago, Taiwan's music scene was dramatically different from what it is today. In the years immediately after World War II, the music industry hit a commercial low point beside which today's moribund industry seems prosperous. Of course, the reasons for the industry's problems in the late 1940s and early 1950s were completely different from those of today. The primary problem was simply that Taiwan, its infrastructure damaged and its economy severly disrupted by the war, was very poor. The few records that were produced were of much lower quality than those that had been released in the 1930s, due to material shortages and the need to keep costs down. Since there were few records and relatively few could afford stereo equipment anyway, live performances were a major source of music for many people. The chief venues for music were what were known as geting (歌廳), which translates as music hall. In the first few years after the war, there were open-air geting along the riverside in Taipei, though soon these were replaced by cabaret-style venues, which remained popular into the 1970s. Larger scale performances were occasionally held in the large hall which had recently been renamed Zhongshan Hall (中山堂). Performances here or in the more expensive music halls were by big bands, of which there were several prominent in the 1950s. On the opposite end of the scale, in the streets there were itinerant musicians of all sorts. Another source of music was radio broadcasts. Many of the prominent musicians, composers and performers of the time did shows on the radio or worked full time for radio stations. Another opportunity for performing was at shows put on by the military for entertaining soldiers.

Though relatively few records were produced in the first decade or so after the war, quite a few songs that are now considered classics were released in this period. A few of them were recorded in this era, though others seem not to have been released record until some years later. One of the most prominent composers of the late 1940s and 1950s was Yang Sanlang (楊三郎), who was also founder and leader of the Black Cat Big Band (黑貓歌舞團). Working with lyricists like Nakano (那卡諾), who also played drums in the Black Cat Big Band, and Zhou Tianweng (周添旺), who had written lyrics for many classics of the Japanese era, Yang wrote "Hoping You Come Home Soon" (望你早歸), "Song of Bitter Romance" (苦戀歌), "Love's Lonely Flower" (孤戀花), "A Rainy Night at the Port" (港都夜雨), "Autumn Wind on a Rainy Night" (秋風夜雨) and many more. Another composer and bandleader in this era was Xu Shi (許石), who also established one of the first postwar record companies. His best-known songs included "Anping Nostalgic Melody [Remembering Anping]" (安平追想曲) and "When the Gong Is Sounded" (鑼聲若響). Other classics from the first decade or so after the war included two songs by Zhang Qiu Dongsong (張邱冬松), "Old Glass Bottles" (收酒矸) and "Hot Rice Dumplings" (燒肉粽); "Mending a Broken Net" (補破網), written by lyricist Li Linqiu (李臨秋) and composer Wang Yunfeng (王雲峰), both of whom were prominent songwriters in the Japanese era; and "You Can't Raise Goldfish In a Wineglass (Bottoms Up)" (杯底不可飼金魚) by classical-trained composer Lu Quansheng (呂泉生). These songs vividly reflected the times in which they were written, as did songs like "Miss Lottery Ticket" (獎券小姐), which referred to a very popular government lottery of the 1950s.

All of the abovementioned songs were in Hoklo (also called Minnan or Taiwanese), the language of Taiwan's largest ethnic group. Though Mandarin speakers began coming to Taiwan after 1945 and there was a huge influx of them in 1949 when China fell to the Communists and the KMT moved its government and what remained of its army to Taiwan, performance catering to this group consisted almost entirely of older Mandarin songs from Shanghai like "Night Blossom [Tuberose]" (夜來香) or new Mandarin hits produced in Hong Kong (where most of the Shanghai entertainment industry moved after 1949). Performances and records of such songs were popular throughout the 1950s and 1960s (and even in more recent decades). Many singers who made a name for themselves performing in music halls in Taiwan did so singing oldies from Shanghai and even English songs. Some of these early singers included Gao Manli (高曼麗), the sisters Shuanghua (霜華) and Xuehua (雪華), Ziwei (紫薇), and Painana (派娜娜) [Note: Painana was a Taiwanese aborigine from the Alishan area, the daughter of Gao Yisheng (高一生), an intellectual, composer, local leader and victim of the White Terror, in which many intellectuals and dissidents were arrested and executed by the KMT government]. While cover songs predominated, however, there were two Mandarin songs of note which came out of Taiwan in the first decade after the war. The first of these was the aboriginal-flavored "High Green Mountain" (高山青) from the first movie produced in Taiwan after the war, The Transformation of Alishan (阿里山風雲). The second was "Green Island Serenade" (綠島小夜曲), which will be discussed below.

By the late 1950s, records were becoming more common, as were Taiwanese films, which often included new songs in their soundtracks or were inspired by and named after classic songs or recent hits. On the negative side, however, many record companies prefered to keep costs down by copying foreign songs (international copyrights were not an issue in those days) and having Hoklo lyrics added to them, thus avoiding having to pay local songwriters to write original melodies (in many cases, even the arrangements were copied). The vast majority of the foreign songs copied in Taiwan in this period were from Japan, since, having grown up under the Japanese, many Taiwanese had a taste for Japanese melodies, particularly for the melancholy Japanese song form called enka. These Japanese songs with Hoklo lyrics were known as "mixed-blood" or "translated" songs. One of the most popular singers of the late 1950s and 1960s was Wen Xia (文夏), the vocalist on well-known songs such as "Hometown At Dusk" (黃昏的故鄉), "Mama, Please Take Care of Yourself" (媽媽請你也保重), and "The Stars Understand My Heart" (星星知我心), which were songs which he directly translated from Japanese. Among the many other popular songs of this type were "Dusk on the Mountain Range" (黃昏嶺), sung by Ji Luxia (紀露霞), one of the most popular singers of the era; "The Orphan's Wish" (孤女的願望) and "Happily Going Sailing" (快樂的出帆), sung by Chen Fenlan (陳芬蘭), a child star who continued her singing career into adulthood; "Handsome Guy on the Mountain Top" (山頂的黑狗兄) and "Pitiful Flower, Goodbye" (可憐戀花!再會吧), sung by Hong Yifeng (洪一峰); "Village Boy" (田庄兄哥), sung by Huang Xitain (黃西田); and "Sulan's Getting Married" (素蘭小姐要出嫁), sung by Huang Sanyuan (黃三元). The lyricist on many of these songs was Ye Junlin (葉俊麟), who wrote thousands of lyrics for Japanese melodies in this period.

Songs adapted from Japanese did not completely dominate the Hoklo music scene. The aforementioned Hong Yifeng, one of the most popular singers of the era, composed a number of very popular songs with lyrics by Ye Junlin, including "Memories of an Old Love" (舊情綿綿), "Twilight in Danshui" (淡水暮色), "The One I Miss" (思慕的人) and "Formosa Mambo" (寶島曼波), all of which were released in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Another successful singer-songwriter was Wu Jinhuai (吳晉淮), who had spent many years performing in Japan before returning to Taiwan. His biggest hits were "Gloomy Moon" (暗淡的月) and "Guan-a-nia Romance" (關仔嶺之戀). Guo Dacheng (郭大誠) was a singer-songwriter who emerged a few years after Hong and Wu. Many of his songs, some of which had original melodies and others of which were adaptations of Japanese songs, were humourous, with titles like "The Muddled Tailor" (糊塗裁縫師), "The Wandering Medicine Man" (流浪拳頭師), and "Pitiful Wino" (可憐燒酒仙). He also wrote the lyrics for "Going to the Graveyard" (墓仔埔也敢去), a song originally popularized by Ye Qitian (葉啟田) and more recently by rocker Wu Bai, as well as "The Oyster Picker's Wife" (青蚵仔嫂), which has also been covered by many artists (the melodies for these songs were originally Japanese and a folk song from Hengchun in south Taiwan, respectively).

Despite the efforts of people like Hong Yifeng, Wu Jinhuai, Guo Dacheng and others, Hoklo songs saw a steep decline in the 1960s. One reason for this was the previously mentioned preference among record companies for using Japanese songs, which eventually forced many local songwriters to turn to other jobs to make a living. But another reason was government policy and changes in the society. In the 1960s, the government began heavily promoting the use of Mandarin over local languages like Hoklo. Among the steps they took was severely restricting the number of "dialect" (i.e., non-Mandarin) songs that could be played on the radio. Also, in 1962, Taiwan's first television station, Taiwan Television (TTV), began broadcasting. This soon became one of the main vehicles for promoting new songs, as more and more Taiwanese watched the numerous variety shows which were shown. But, as with radio, the broadcast of Hoklo songs on television was heavily restricted. So by the mid-1960s, the main way in which Hoklo songs could be promoted was through movies. Even these began to decline in number, and by the end of the 1960s, Mandarin songs completely dominated the popular music scene.

As mentioned above, there were very few original Mandarin songs written in Taiwan in the decade after the war. The man most responsible for changing that was composer and arranger Zhou Lanping (周藍萍). Zhou, originally from Hunan in China, came to Taiwan in the late 1940s (he worked on the film The Transformation of Alishan as music director and may have helped write "High Green Mountain", though the film's director is usually credited with the melody for the song). In the early 1950s, he composed the music for "Green Island Serenade", which was recorded by Ziwei, the first truly popular singer of Mandarin songs in Taiwan. Actually, "Green Island Serenade" was not popular when it was first released. However, it slowly spread among the Chinese communities in Southeast Asia, gradually growing in popularity, and after several years became a hit back in Taiwan itself, where it is now considered a classic. Zhou composed music for a number of other original Mandarin songs which appeared in movie soundtracks in the late 1950s, often working with the lyricist Zhuang Nu (莊奴), who would go on to write lyrics for many hit songs. However, it was "Recalling the Past" (回想曲), recorded in 1961 by Ziwei (紫薇) with both music and lyrics by Zhou, that many consider the first really big Mandarin hit in Taiwan (even "Green Island Serenade" supposedly only peaked in popularity in its wake). Zhou also wrote a number of other well-known songs such as "Beautiful Formosa" (美麗的寶島) and "Bilan Village Girl" (碧蘭村的姑娘); even more successfully, he composed the music for the huangmei opera film The Love Eterne (梁山伯與祝英台), which shattered box office records in Taiwan in 1963.

Unfortunately, Zhou moved to Hong Kong to work on movies, depriving Taiwan of its premier composer of Mandarin songs. So instead, record companies producing Mandarin records did the same thing that those producing Hoklo records did -- they used songs from Japan and other foreign countries. "Unforgettable Memory" (意難忘), recorded in 1963 by Meidai (美黛), was a massively popular Mandarin hit, perhaps the first to successfully outsell the Hoklo songs of the time. This song was a Japanese melody to which lyricist Shenzhi (慎芝) added Mandarin lyrics, as was "I'm Beside You" (我在你左右), another hit for Meidai, and "Heartless Person" (負心的人), a big hit for Yao Surong (姚蘇蓉) which was later banned because it was onsidered "unhealthy". Shenzhi also wrote lyrics to an old Taiwanese song for "A Glass Full of Bitter Brew" (苦酒滿杯), popularized by Xie Lei (謝雷), and to a Korean song for "Crying Flower" (淚的小花), popularized by Qing Shan (青山). However, new composers of Mandarin songs did finally begin to emerge in the late 1960s. The most successful of these was Zuo Hongyuan (左宏元), who worked frequently with Zhuang Nu. Together they wrote a number of hits for Yao Surong and others. Zuo also wrote the music for Yao's huge hit "I'm Not Going Home Today" (今天不回家), another song that was later banned (in fact many of Yao's hits were banned), and for "Jingjing" (晶晶), a theme song which was an early hit for Deng Lijun (鄧麗君; also known as Teresa Teng).

Though first Hoklo and then Mandarin songs dominated Taiwan's mainstream popular music scene in the 1950s and 1960s, Taiwan's other ethnic groups, the Hakka and the various aboriginal peoples, still had their own music in this period. Hakka music was still mostly traditional music such as "mountain songs", but singers like Lai Bixia (賴碧霞) and Lu Jinshou (呂金守), who recorded under the name Minglang (明朗), did record some popular songs in Hakka. However, these were primarily adaptations of songs that had been hits in other languages. As for aboriginal songs, Puyuma songwriters Baliwakes (陸森寶; Lu Senbao) and PangTer (陳實; Chen Shi) wrote a number of original songs in this period, including Lu's "Beautiful Rice Grains" (美麗的稻穗) and "Praising The Ancestors" (頌祭祖先) and Chen's "Ocean" (海洋). Many records of aboriginal songs were released in the 1960s, mostly by Ring Ring Records (鈴鈴唱片; pinyin: Lingling), which also released numerous Hakka records as well as Mandarin and Hoklo ones. It was also in the 1960s that Amis singer Lu Jingzi (盧靜子), the first aboriginal star, emerged. Though she wasn't well known among Han Chinese listeners, she was popular in all the aboriginal communities and even performed overseas in Japan and Southeast Asia. She performed many songs that were extremely popular among aboriginal audiences; her versions of the songs are still often the ones aboriginal people are most familiar with, even when she wasn't the original vocalist. Most of these songs were however virtually unknown among non-aboriginal audiences, one exception being "Malan Romance" (馬蘭之戀), which was turned into a hit song in Mandarin and Hoklo and was covered by many popular singers, with Lai Bixia even doing a Hakka version.

Still, for most music listeners in Taiwan, by the end of the 1960s, Taiwan's music scene was dominated by Mandarin songs popularized on television (a second station, China Television [CTV] began broadcasting in 1969). Some of these songs were composed by local songwriters, but many were still adaptations of foreign hits. Lyrically, many were overly sentimental and shallow love songs which had limited appeal for the educated youth of the time, who turned instead to Western music (see box). It was this background which set the scene for the transformation of Taiwan's music scene in the 1970s.