"Music is the best bridge of communication between the two sides of the strait, only in music, people will not misunderstand each other." Hu Defu, a famous Taiwanese musician, told the surging news (www.thepaper.cn).
Hu Defu has a high status in the music industry on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, some people say that he is Bob Dylan of Taiwan, others say that he is "the father of Taiwanese folk songs" and "the pioneer of the Taiwan indigenous movement", and the well-known writer Jiang Xun called him "the most beautiful voice in Taiwan".
"The Father of Taiwan Folk Songs" Hu Defu performed at the Cross-Strait Youth New Media Summit Forum Literary and Art Evening. The Surging News reporter Han Yuting pictured
On June 16, Hu Defu appeared at the literary and art evening of the Cross-Strait Youth New Media Summit Forum, and he walked to the stage and sang the song "Wind of the Pacific".
"The wind of the Pacific Ocean blows slowly / Blows into the victory of life / The earliest feeling of peace / The earliest feeling of peace ..." When the song burst out of his thick voice, the audience was quiet, especially the listeners from Taiwan, this song revived their youth memories, and many listeners could not help but sing quietly with him.
"The Wind of the Pacific" was composed by Hu Defu when he returned to his hometown in Taitung many years ago to recuperate, when it was summer, he walked to the beach, and a gust of sea breeze blew in his face, he grasped the delicate feelings in time, wrote this popular song, and this hometown trip also allowed him to find the motivation to create.
"The wind in the Pacific ocean makes me feel deeply that the Pacific Ocean is our ocean, definitely not The United States or Japan." Hudev told the audience at the scene, which caused many people to applaud.
"Sing Your Own Song"
Hoodev is 69 years old.
In his musical works, the listener can feel his deep feelings for the motherland, his hometown and the people at all times.
In 1977, Hu Defu composed a poem "Young China", "We are separated by distant mountains and rivers / Go to visit the land of the motherland / You use your footprints / I use the nostalgia of my wanderer ..."
This song, which is full of longing for the reunification of the motherland, was once "banned" by the Taiwan authorities.
Hudev said that many of his contemporaries have passed away, and there are not many people like him who stick to the path of music and continue to move forward.
Born in Taitung and of Beinan and Paiwan ancestry, he left his hometown at the age of 11 to attend the private Tamkang Senior High School in Tamsui Township, Taipei County (now New Taipei City), where he attended choirs during Tamkang High School and began his interest in music. After graduating from high school, he was admitted to the Department of Foreign Languages of National Taiwan University, but later suspended his studies due to illness.
During his suspension from school and part-time work, he met Wan Shalang, who was also an aboriginal singer, and the two formed an orchestra together to sing at the Leofoo Inn in Taipei, which laid the foundation for him to become a folk singer in the future.
In the 1970s, he met another important friend of the music path, Li Shuangze, at a café.
"My musical path has been greatly influenced by him." Hudev recalled to the surging news.
Li Shuangze is a musician with a strong sense of nationality. In the winter of 1976, tamkang College of Arts and Sciences (now Tamkang University) held a "Western folk concert" on campus, but he sang four Taiwanese folk songs on stage, and before singing off stage, he asked the audience: "Why do you want to spend twenty yuan to listen to Chinese sing foreign songs?" ”
His move ignited a controversy in Taiwan's art and literary circles over "modern Chinese folk songs", known in history as the "Tamkang Incident".
At this time, Taiwan's society is in transition, the economy is fast rising, people's self-identity is relatively confused, and Taiwanese youth have been singing European and American style music, but no one sings their own music.
Once, Li Shuangze happened to come to the café to play, and he said to Hu Defu, "Since you are from the Beinan ethnic group, why don't you sing a Song of the Beinan music to me?" Hu Defu immediately sang a Beinan song composed by Lu Senbao in 1958, "Beautiful Rice Spike", and the applause received at the scene was even warmer than his singing english songs.
"My mind is like a typhoon blowing through." Hoodev recalled that the incident made his mood difficult to calm down for a long time, and he realized the power of folk songs. Since then, he has seriously studied music with friends of different nationalities, and has also jointly launched the "Collection of Modern Chinese Folk Songs" with Li Shuangze and Yang Xian, which is regarded as the beginning of Taiwanese and even Chinese folk songs.
At the end of the 1970s, folk songs ushered in the golden age, and writing their own songs and singing their own songs seemed to become the mission of young people in Taiwan.
"I don't know if I can write songs, but Li Shuangze said that writing songs is to tell stories, ah, when you were a child, wasn't it very pleasant to herd cattle?" Ah, I immediately found the feeling. ”
Under the supervision of Li Shuangze, Hu Defu created "The Child on the Back of the Cow" and "Hurry", and since then embarked on the road of folk song creation, which has become the youth memory of many Taiwanese. At this time, Hudev was also actively involved in the folk song movement, and he used songwriting and singing to speak for his own ethnic group.
On September 10, 1977, Li Shuangze died unexpectedly, which made Khudev extremely sad.
Li Shuangze's posthumous work left in the drawer is "Formosa Belle Eula", in honor of Li Shuangze, Hu Defu and his friend Yang Zujun completed the recording together, and what he did not expect in any way was that this song had been labeled as a political label.
"A song is a song, and all I'm singing is beautiful Taiwan." Hoodev said.
In the stereotype of many mainland fans, they always think that Hu Defu only writes nostalgia, but in fact, it is not, and the subjects he creates are extremely humanistic and caring for society.
He wrote a song called "Dawushan Beautiful Mother" in the 80s, and many fans regarded it as a beautiful melody of nostalgia, and no one understood that behind the song was his voice for the prostitutes who were trafficked to the city. He also worked with his partners to rescue the young prostitutes with a short knife, and then a friend helped to take care of them and send them back to their hometowns.
When the Haishan Coal Mine exploded in Taipei, most of the victims were Ami indigenous people, and he wrote a poem "Why" in grief...
This is the spirit of folk songs, which tell the story of the living conditions of the Taiwanese people in that era, and he said that the same is true of the revival of American folk songs, which is all sung for the workers and the suffering.
Since the 1990s, Taiwan's entertainment industry has risen, many people have played popular music, Hu Defu does not see well, he temporarily put aside folk songs, and turned to social activities.
"At that time, many people said that I was a deserter, and if I had stayed on the stage, I would have been sure that I would not have been able to write those beautiful songs in the end." Hoodev said he was not a man who liked to be lively and often liked to go to tough places.
"Only when you get to a hard place will there be something." Hoodev said.
Hoodev. Courtesy of Straits TV
Peace can be achieved through more contact
After more than 30 years of precipitation, he returned to the music industry.
In April 2005, Hudev released his first album "Hurry", he was suddenly remembered, and the song "Pacific Wind" beat Jay Chou and won two awards at the 2006 Golden Melody Awards for Best Lyricist and Best Song of the Year. That year, he was 55 years old, but he unexpectedly became popular in Taiwan and the mainland.
"I'm a person who can't finish chanting, I can't finish singing it, this is the talent given to me by my ancestors."
In 2006, Hood first performed in the mainland, releasing on the mainland from his second album. To his surprise, the mainland's cultural circles and young people showed unusual enthusiasm for the elderly Aboriginal singer.
Bai Yansong, a well-known host of CCTV, wrote the preface for Hu Defu, and when he talked about a party many years ago, he put up Hu Defu's "Hurry", "Life is like a road, a moment of west and a moment of east, hurry, hurry, tears and misty eyes." ”
At his concerts in the mainland, many fans will hum with him, and a large number of invitations and commercial resources continue to pour into him.
Hudev's compositions still maintain an observation of society, singing about deforestation and environmental changes, including the situation of veterans from other provinces in Taiwan, and singing the Zen in poetry.
At present, he is creating "Mengjia Avenue", which reflects the underclass society in Taipei, depicting the "homeless people" on the streets of Taipei, which is the subject he has always wanted to create.
"I saw an old woman with dementia, a marginal woman in the city, walking around the market every day and seemingly without time to speak. I later found out that the bag she was carrying was her home. Hu Defu said only a few words, outlining the current situation of the survival of the urban bottom society.
He believes that folk songs are life, not made up, but grown in life.
He was once moved by a picture of many provincial veterans hanging yellow medals on their chests in Tamsui Town (now Tamsui District), located on the northwest coast of New Taipei City, constantly saluting the other end of the sea.
"They are saluting their compatriots and relatives on the other side of the sea, the provincial veterans only have memories, and no one in the city cares about him." Hu Defu said that countless veterans from other provinces who have drifted across the sea to Taiwan have been lonely for half their lives, and they have died quietly.
The DPP and the "Taiwan independence" elements deliberately create ethnic antagonisms, they take veterans from other provinces who have no money and no power as scapegoats, and use public speeches and media dissemination to instill in the public that veterans from other provinces are "rice worms," artificially creating a kind of hatred and discrimination.
"How old have they sacrificed their youth, and why do people in Taiwan still regard them as 'worms'?" How evil it is inside! Don't look at our natives who have no writing, but pay the most attention to the ancestral spirit, no matter what, can not betray the ancestors. I see that many Taiwanese ancestors are on the mainland, but many people are full of hostility to the mainland and speak very hard, how can a nation be so torn apart and divided? Hoodev said.
Thinking about these questions, he couldn't help but feel sad.
In 2016, Hu Defu created a single called "Torn", which reflects the internal friction caused by the tearing of Taiwanese society, people seem to be busy tearing each other apart, friends and relatives do not speak to each other because of different political stances, and even between fathers and sons and relatives. The end of such infighting is the collapse of society and the sacrifice of the future of young people, and he hopes that people will use the song to trigger reflection and jointly remember the times when bridges were built rather than torn apart.
In order to fulfill the wish of his old friend Li Shuangze, he also created "A Bridge", hoping that the people on both sides of the strait would come and go with each other and not look at each other coldly.
In recent years, he himself has often traveled to and from the mainland, and he is often surprised when communicating with young people on the mainland.
"They have a strong ability to think independently and pursue a depth of knowledge." Hu Defu said that he was slightly disappointed that he saw that many young people in Taiwan are in decline in their ability to think independently, and it is very easy for the media to influence their judgment.
In recent years, the young generation of folk music on the mainland is on the rise, and Hu Defu also wants to let mainland netizens hear his music.
He has traveled back and forth to Chinese mainland attended music festivals and concerts many times, and has actively opened his own paid music channel in many Internet audio websites in the mainland, and he has also learned to use the network platform to broadcast live to Chinese mainland fans, shoot documentaries, and give voice lessons.
"Now the mainland has changed too much." Hu Defu told the surging news that he has also repeatedly advised young people in Taiwan to visit the mainland more often, "Don't listen to politicians." ”
He knows how difficult it is, the Internet and social media are changing the younger generation, and the unequal media information has made young people in Taiwan lose their ability to think and discern.
Hu Defu himself has personally experienced that because he often comes to the mainland, which has caused dissatisfaction among a small number of netizens in Taiwan, so as to label him on the Internet, it is difficult to listen to him, and he sometimes wants to reply positively on the Internet.
"People without ancestors and beliefs seem to have a hard time communicating." Hoodev said.
He held that only when people on both sides of the strait have more contacts and sincere exchanges can peace be realized in the end.