Music played for the deceased using the traditional nanguan (南管) and beiguan (北管) music forms celebrate the philosophy of life, morals and the values of Taiwanese, and therefore should not be discriminated against, an academic said on Saturday.
A video clip uploaded to the Internet on Friday showed a Taichung Municipal Taichung First Senior High School music teacher surnamed Lu (呂) yelling at a group of students for giving a presentation on nanguan and beiguan music, and a “soul guiding” music piece for their report on traditional Chinese instruments.
Soul guiding is a Taiwanese folk custom comprised of rituals and music, said Lin Mao-hsien (林茂賢), chairman of National Taichung University of Education’s Department of Taiwanese Languages and Literature.
Photo: CNA
Although it serves to guide the soul of the deceased along the road to Sukhavati — a pure land in Mahayana Buddhism — the tradition consoles the living and eases their worries, he said.
Soul guiding music embodies the Taiwanese folk beliefs of the immortality of souls, judgment after death and karma, Lin added.
Traditional nanguan and beiguan music has also been included in the 12-year national education curriculum guidelines and designated as part of Taiwan’s intangible cultural heritage, Lin said.
While the two music forms are frequently linked, beiguan is sung in Mandarin Chinese while nanguan is sung in Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) in an accent associated with China’s southern Fujian Province, said Wu Su-hsia (吳素霞), a life-long promoter of nanguan.
Beiguan is performed using suonas, gongs and drums, as well as pipas and huqins, while nanguan only involves instruments that were played indoors, such as pipas, sanxians and erxian, she added.
Nanguan has been preserved independently from the music industry, as it is not marketed for profit, but is a kind of casual music for entertainment, Wu said.
“Although nanguan is not a type of performance art, it is a living antique of Taiwanese cultural arts,” she said.
Meanwhile, the school on Saturday said that it would provide counseling to the students involved in the incident with Lu.
However, the students who uploaded the video accused the school of forcing them to take down the video.
They said they hoped the school would investigate the incident and replace Lu.
Lu had not made any public response as of press time last night, while the school said that the incident was still being investigated.
Additional reporting by Ho Tsung-han
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai