1st Edition

Made in Taiwan Studies in Popular Music

Edited By Eva Tsai, Tung-Hung Ho, Miaoju Jian Copyright 2020
    288 Pages 69 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    288 Pages 69 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    Made in Taiwan: Studies in Popular Music serves as a comprehensive introduction to the history, sociology, and musicology of contemporary Taiwanese popular music. Each essay, written by a leading scholar of Taiwanese music, covers the major figures, styles, and social contexts of pop music in Taiwan and provides adequate context so readers understand why the figure or genre under discussion is of lasting significance. The book first presents a general description of the history and background of popular music in Taiwan, followed by essays organized into thematic sections: Trajectories, Identities, Issues, and Interactions.

    List of Illustrations  About the Authors  Preface  Acknowledgments  Introduction: Problematizing and Contextualizing Taiwanese Popular Music EVA TSAI, TUNG-HUNG HO, MIAOJU JIAN  1. Profiling a Postwar Trajectory of Taiwanese Popular Music: Nativism in Metamorphosis and Its Alternatives TUNG-HUNG HO  2. Producing Mandopop in 1960s Taiwan: When a Prolific Composer Met a Pioneering Entrepreneur SZU-WEI CHEN  3. The Development of the Indigenous "Mountain Music Industry" and "Mountain Songs" (1960-1970s): Production and Competition KUO-CHAO HUANG  4. Entangled Identities: The Music and Social Significance of Hsu Shih—A Vanguard Composer of Taiyu BalladsC.S. STONE SHIH  5. The Cultural Hybridity of Taiyu Pop Songs: The Case of Taiyu Covers of Japanese Tunes YU-YUAN HUANG  6. Rock and Roll from Rest and Recreation (R&R)—the Collective Memory of the Aging Pop-Rock Lovers in Taiwan MENG TZE CHU  7. Chrysanthemum Fields Forever: The Labor Exchange Band, Taiwanese Folk-Rock, and the LP Form ANDREW F. JONES  8. How Taiwanese Students Learn: High School Extracurricular Clubs and the Making of Young Rock Musicians CHI-CHUNG WANG  9. Tacky and World-Class—Hsieh Jin-yen, Taiwan EDM, and the Reinvigoration of Tai EVA TSAI  10. Muscular Vernaculars: Braggadocio, "Academic Rappers," and Alternative Hip-Hop Masculinity in Taiwan HAO-LI LIN  11. Indie Music as Cool Ambassadors? Export-Oriented Cultural Policy in Taiwan, 2010-2017 YU-PENG LIN and HUI-JU TSAI  12. Multidimensionality of Chineseness in Taiwan’s Mandopop: Jay Chou’s China Wind Pop and the Transnational Audience CHEN-YU LIN  13. "The Eternal Sweetheart for the Nation": A Political Epitaph for Teresa Teng’s Music Journey in Taiwan CHEN-CHING CHENG  14. How Taiwanese Indie Music Embraces the Worlds: Global Mandopop, East Asian DIY Networks, and the Translocal Entrepreneurial Promoters MIAOJU JIAN  Afterword: Orbiting and Down-to-Earth: A Conversation with Lim Giong about His Music, Art, and Mind MIAOJU JIAN, TUNG-HUNG HO WITH EVA TSAI  A Selected Bibliography on Popular Music in Taiwan  Index

    Biography

    Eva Tsai is Associate Professor of Mass Communication at National Taiwan Normal University. She is committed to media and cultural studies in inter-Asian, translocal contexts and has published primarily in this area. She is also an independent podcast producer.

    Tung-hung Ho is Associate Professor of Psychology at Fu Jen Catholic University, Taiwan. He devotes his research and social activism to all issues related to independent music culture. 

    Miaoju Jian is Professor of Communication, National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan. Her extensive research and publications have covered topics from the culture and political economy of reality TV programs to indie-music scenes and DIY culture in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and East Asia.

    "This anthology is a sumptuous and ambitious project. It is sumptuous because the contributors offer readers a unique occasion to understand Taiwanese popular music, along an expansive time line (from the late 1890s to 2019), across an unusual musical diversity (whether in terms of what we usually understand as genres, or pop defined linguistically or cultural-historically), and informed by a wide range of disciplines (media and communication studies, sociology, anthropology, history, literature, East Asian studies and ethnomusicology). It is ambitious because the editors are not content with a sumptuous collection. ... All in all, Made in Taiwan is a must read for anyone interested in Taiwan, Taiwanese popular music and popular music at large. For the richness of musical genres, case studies and academic disciplines included in the anthology, it is relevant to scholars operating in a wide range of fields. It should also be a good textbook for courses on popular music, globalization and area studies."

    —Yiu Fai Chow, Global Media and China