Hope Talk
希望講堂
Breaking Out the “Imprisoned Freedom” with Folk Music
用民謠衝破「被禁錮的自由」
Aug 24
8月24日
5:00pm - 6:00pm
About the Program
TUDI-VOICE was formed in 2007, twenty years after the lifting of martial law. The ‘White Rice Bomber’ incidents influenced the formation of the band.
Although Taiwan had already lifted martial law, the party-state education of the martial law period and the subsequent failure to implement transitional justice still deeply affected the thinking and political choices of the Taiwanese people. This was a social phenomenon that TUDI-VOICE has always wanted to break through.
TUDI-VOICE sings about land justice, human rights, and environmental issues. They continue to use music to challenge the policeman in everyone's heart, in the hope that everyone can be free to be themselves and to pursue a more complete self.
A-Tat is the lead singer and the soul of TUDI-VOICE, and has been involved in social movements through his music. He learnt the traditional Taiwanese instrument, yueqin, under the legendary Chen Ming Chang, and insists on communicating and composing in Taiwanese. He says, "How can folk songs not have a land to sing to, and how can a land not have a mother tongue?”
Formed in 2006, TUDI-VOICE uses Taiwanese ballads and the spirit of rock as the basis of their creative work. Through music, they express their concern for Taiwan's rural villages, the grassroots action, and the sustainability of the land. Like this, they have created a unique style of Taiwanese rural rock. Through music, TUDI-VOICE gives voice to the marginalized in society, and always insists on pursuing the values of equality, justice, and freedom, and is full of passion and ideals for the countryside. They treat every performance as a journey and every song as a love letter to Taiwan. With love for and belief in the land, they pour their powerful energy into music and give it back to the land of Taiwan, with melodies that are sometimes angry and impassioned, and sometimes soft and tender. No matter how it sounds, it is the most simple and natural wisdom nurtured by this land.
From the Curating Team
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TAIWANfest Toronto is grateful to be held on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of many nations, including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples, that is now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. We acknowledge our privilege to be gathered here, and commit to work with and be respectful to the Indigenous peoples of this land while we engage in meaningful conversations of culture and reconciliation.