The Freedom Mix of Jui-chuan Chang’s track The Hope Is Here (off his Genesis album) is finally done. You can have a listen to it in the MoShang Radio player and it will soon be available on the Podsafe Radio Network for podcasters to play.

If I spent somewhat longer than usual brooding on this one, it was because I wanted to do justice to Jui-chuan’s powerful anthem. Here is Jui-chuan’s own translation of the lyrics:

THE HOPE IS HERE

They say there’s a gulf between us

’Cause we fight and badmouth each other

Born and grew up on the same land

Without you, I can’t fly

No more yelling, no more name-calling

Let’s sit together. Let’s sing and drink

Only when you’re here with me

Freedom will blossom like the spring

 

Feeling so good, standing here

It’s our voice that they will hear

On this land there’s no passer-by

’Cause as one we unite

 

(Chorus)

Come here

No longer separate

Truly free on this ocean with no shores to be seen

Come here

It’s a colorful world

Let me sing you this song ’cause the hope is here

 

They say we daydream too much

We’d surrender as soon as we get scared

Ancestors’ blood and sweat drop into soil

Protect democracy and let it soar

You worship the Buddha, I believe in Jesus

We’re actually on the same path

Only when you’re here with me

Mercy will be blowing in the wind

 

Feeling so good, standing here

It’s our voice that they will hear

On this island there’s no passer-by

’Cause as one we unite

 

(Chorus)

Come here

No longer separate

Truly free on this ocean with no shores to be seen

Come here

It’s a colorful world

Let me sing you this song ’cause the hope is here

I’ve just completed my Disquiet Mix of Jui-Chuan Chang‘s track Hey, Kid. The original is off his 2006 release Joe: Genesis on Adia’s label. If you’re reading this blog on moshang.net, it’s the first track in the “MoShang Radio” sidebar player.

 

I don’t consider myself to be a particularly political person. I pretty much go about my daily life here in Taiwan teaching and making these tunes whilst preaching the gospel of chilling out. In reality though, we live in a baby democracy just a piddle in the pond away from a communist giant that is pretty unambiguous about it’s intentions of swallowing Taiwan whole. I’ll hand you over to Jui-Chuan who thinks about these things long and hard, and then presents his thoughts elegantly, eloquently and contagiously passionately in both English and Taiwanese raps.

My name is 張睿銓 (Jui-Chuan Chang). I grew up in Taiwan, where English is a foreign language. This English name “Joe” best substantiates that my mind had been colonized by American culture massively and willingly since I started learning English at the age of twelve. I keep the trail, admit it, and contemplate it.
Although Adia and I had our first spark in his last album I am Human, it is the creating process of the blueprint for his latest album Balance, along with honest experience collected later from my living and studying in the United States of America, that made me think, as a “human,” an “Oriental” that lives on this East-Asian island-country where new and old beliefs confront one another and diverse cultures coexist, as well as where the necessity of protecting modern democracy fights against the desperation of old-time dictatorship for regaining power, what I am supposed to identify with and how I can make sense of myself. Who am I?

Everyone spends their entire life looking for a niche in which they fit, no matter what they do. After returning to my country, I began teaching academic writing in college. I make use of various ways of thinking along with critical logic and reasoning to help the young, impressionable students question traditions and trends, yet I am glad to see them challenge all disciplines and authorities with courage and intuition. I always have this funny feeling: whether I make music or teach writing, God leads me to walk the same path.

I try hard to walk the path. Everything I carry along with me on the path—language, music, scars, history, temptation, struggle, surrender—belongs to no one else but me. It is me. Deconstructed and reconstructed, I am the genesis of a new identity. So is everyone.

Liner notes for Hey, Kid:

This is the first rap (and might be the first musical composition, to my limited knowledge) ever that explicitly depicts the February 28 Massacre of 1947 in Taiwan, launched by Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese Kuomintang (KMT, also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party), and the thirty-eight-year martial-law era that followed the Massacre. More than twenty thousand people disappeared or were slaughtered in the Massacre, countless more in the martial-law era, as is typical of extreme political persecution and witch hunts (generally referred to as “White Terror” in Taiwan). The song is a tribute to all those brave souls – both Formosan and newcomers – who died fighting the KMT and its dictatorial government, which was finally ended by Taiwan’s fledgling democracy in 2000.

 

Not long ago, I met a Taiwanese hip-hop band on MySpace called Kou Chou Ching. Kou graciously bought both my albums and I offered to do a remix for them. Well, I’m right in the middle of a remix for their track Black Heart and I thought I’d share my excitement about it. On the one hand it’s really exciting to be collaborating with Taiwanese artists again (I collaborated with singer Sonja V. from Taipei on Chill Dynasty – whom I incidentally also met on MySpace) – besides rapping in a combination of Mandarin, Taiwanese and the aboriginal language Hakka, Kou Chou Ching also incorporate traditional Chinese instrumentation in their music. Since I only understand a little of the Mandarin (and nothing of the rest), I’m kinda reduced to looking at the vocals as percussion – emotional percussion; I don’t really see this as an impediment. On the other hand, I’m really excited about the way the track is coming along; it had me bopping around in the studio a bit yesterday (!) – always cool when that happens!

Speaking of Taiwanese aboriginal music, Mark Forman phoned on the weekend asking if I remembered who the band was that got sued by a Taiwanese aboriginal singer. First I’d heard of it, so I looked it up on the net and it turned out to be German group Enigma. They had a huge hit with a track called Return to Innocence (that’s the album cover of the single above) in 1994. It was later used to promote the 1998 Olympics and was also used in Virgin Atlantic’s advertising. Difang, a traditional singer of the Ami people of Taiwan was watching TV one day and was shocked to hear himself singing a traditional song on a world-wide hit. There’s more on the story here. I had no idea those vocals were from Taiwan… live and learn.