Featured Performance
焦點表演
Old Town, New Soul
當代客家靈魂
Aug 30
8月30日
5:00 PM - 6:00 PM
About the Program
If people today were to sing Hakka mountain songs, what would they sing?
For many years, ZiXuan & Slow Train have continued to create music in the Hakka language. They’ve broken through the public’s perception that Hakka music is always centred on rural life, family ties, and nostalgia, by incorporating social issues and observations of daily life into their work. In their songs, you can also hear puns that are more familiar to Taiwanese listeners, as they playfully weave Hakka vocabulary and humour into the melody.
In their music, the Hakka language is one that continues to respond to the times and breathe in unison with contemporary society. Through their music, you’ll hear a contemporary Hakka spirit that is both deeply rooted in tradition and brimming with innovative energy.
ZiXuan & Slow Train have received four Golden Melody and Golden Bell Awards, becoming one of Taiwan’s most recognized voices in contemporary mother-language music. Growing up in a multilingual family shaped by both Hakka and Taiwanese cultural influences, ZiXuan’s songwriting is deeply rooted in everyday life, local identity, and the emotional ties between people and the places they come from. Performing in Hakka, Taiwanese, and Mandarin, his music captures the struggles of urban life, the feeling of returning home, and the quiet emotions carried by ordinary people.
Beyond music, ZiXuan is also known for his work in community-based cultural revitalization. In recent years, he returned to his hometown of Hsinchu and transformed a space inside the historic Dongmen Market into “Dongmen REC&LIVE,” a hub for live music, recording, and creative exchange. Since 2020, he has also led Old Town Party, a grassroots arts and music initiative that brings musicians, artists, and creators from Taiwan and abroad into Hsinchu’s old town district. In a city internationally known for its technology industry, ZiXuan continues to use music and cultural action to reconnect people with local stories, neighbourhood spaces, and the evolving cultural life of the city.
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.