Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) promised on Thursday to help with the production of a documentary on Hung Yi-feng (洪一峰), better known as “the king of Formosan song,” who died of pancreatic cancer at Taipei Medical University Hospital, on Wednesday at the age of 82.
Hung, who was blessed with a deep, resonant voice and was a prolific songwriter, is familiar to middle-aged and elderly Taiwanese-language music fans.
Old numbers such as Memories of an Old Love (舊情綿綿) and The One I’m Missing (思慕的人) are still very popular among KTV patrons.
Chiu Kun-liang (邱坤良), a professor at National Taipei University of the Arts who grew up listening to Hung’s songs, said he awakened the Taiwanese identity of many people.
NATIONAL TREASURE
“He was unfortunate to have been born in Taiwan ... If he had lived in another country, he would have long been recognized as a national treasure,” Chiu said.
Chuang Yung-ming (莊永明), a researcher of Taiwanese history, said Hung’s contribution to Taiwanese-language songs lay in his inheritance of the independent creative spirit of the Taiwanese during the period of Japanese colonial rule (1895-1945).
“A group of talented Taiwanese artists composed many lyrical Taiwanese-language songs between 1932 and 1940. However, their development came to an abrupt halt after Japan launched a campaign to turn ‘Taiwanese into loyal subjects of the Japanese emperor,’” Chuang said.
ENKA
Hung successfully incorporated the Oriental five-note scale musical style popular in the 1930s into his compositions and also made use of features of Japanese enka and jazz music that made their way to Taiwan in the 1950s, Chuang said.
“As a result, he created a unique blend or hybrid style that reflects the complexity of Taiwanese history,” he said.
Hung was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer on Dec. 7, his family said. He was hospitalized on Dec. 26 after he fell into a coma following a bout of pneumonia and was transferred to a hospice ward on Feb. 11.
A memorial service will be held for him on March 13.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS