Improvising in a Taiwanese mood
In addition to its authentic Taiwanese flavor, another enticing aspect of chant-song is its improvisational nature.
Chant-songs draw not only from the classic Taiwanese-language songbook, but also from current events and social issues, using these to pique the audience’s interest. Truly great chant-song artists would often lose themselves in their improvised pieces, weaving entire songs on the fly. It is this aspect of the art that led to Chu calling chant-song “Taiwanese jazz.”
Such talent is the fruit of endless experience with performing. In the past, chant-singers would use their stories to draw crowds, taking the opportunity to then also pitch their wares, with medicine being the most common.
In her earlier days, Yang Xiuqing would stick with traditional songs for the most part, but later she began weaving in spoken sections, creating long hybrid chant-songs in which she used the spoken parts to help the audience understand the deeper meaning of the sung sections. “Being blind, Yang couldn’t see the audience while trying to pitch her medicines, so she was afraid they’d start leaving, and she began using spoken-word parts to keep the storytelling tight and hold people’s interest so they wouldn’t wander off.”
This form of the art has also aroused the curiosity of the younger generation. For example, for their graduation project, National Yunlin University of Science and Technology (YunTech) students of visual communication design Huang Yu Qian, Chang Fang Rong, and Wang Bo Ren wanted to do something “Taiwanese,” and they sought out Chu.
Taiwan Smile had long been thinking of publishing an album of chant-song and producing a video to go with it. These YunTech students brought a powerful visual design to the resulting video. Building on the traditional tale “Prince Nezha’s Triumph Against the Dragon King,” the team added a heaping helping of modern matters; for example, during Nezha’s 42-month gestation, his mother gets a consultation with well-known doctor and current Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je. Each scene in the music video is shot in stop motion, with handwritten lyrics, paper cutouts, and collages all used to create a vibrant atmosphere and make traditional chant-song a little more appealing to modern audiences.
According to Chu, though, the biggest challenge for the YunTech students was the improvisational nature of chant-song. Each and every shot in the video was planned, designed, and timed to fit the lyrics with essentially no wiggle room. Ahead of time, Chu discussed the story and script with Yang, but nonetheless, every time Yang stepped into the booth, the song she performed would be slightly different, ultimately even having an impact on the visual design side of the production.
In the end, though, this inspired creative fusion of old and new went on to earn recognition at the Red Dot Awards and help another of Taiwan’s intangible cultural assets, chant-song, make a splash on the world stage.
It is 4 p.m. on a mid-August day, and the fierce heat of the midday sun has passed. On the grass outside Taichung’s CMP Block Museum of Arts a crowd of people has gathered, some standing, some sitting. On stage, Yang Xiuqing starts up with her well-known catchphrase, “Wanna hear a 98-year-old lady sing?” which raises a cheer from the crowd. Taiwan Smile’s Chu Chien-chih and Lim Tien-an sit on either side of their teacher, with the former reminding the audience that it’s a good time to clap during the interludes. The entertaining performance draws peals of laughter from the audience, and the air reverberates with the sound of traditional music as the performers tell the tragic tale of the “Butterfly Lovers” Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai.
As another song launches off with the words “Let me sing you a tale,” we can only hope that such tales will continue to have a long and healthy life in Taiwan.
Yang Xiuqing and her students Chu Chien-chih and Lim Tien-an are helping keep traditional chant-song culture alive.
The music video for What Are You Singing? was shot in stop motion and used handwritten lyrics, paper cutouts, and collages to enliven the traditional art of chant-song and make it more appealing to modern audiences. (courtesy of Taiwan Smile Folksong Group)
Instrument in hand, Yang Xiuqing starts her performance with the words “Let me sing you a tale....”. (photo by Lin Min-hsuan)