About 500 members of the Taiwanese community rallied outside the State Library in Melbourne yesterday. The rally was part of a worldwide action with other events taking place in major cities of Australia, Europe, Asia and North America to show solidarity with Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement.
At the same time as the event in Melbourne a crowd estimated at 350,000 was turning out in Taipei. This represented a massive show of public support for the student-led Sunflower Movement which has occupied the Legislative Yuan in Taipei since 18 March. The movement’s key aim is to ensure that the Cross-Strait Service and Trade Agreement (CSSTA) and other agreements with China are subject to proper scrutiny by the legislature.
My recent letter in the Taipei Times ended by saying that youth must speak out to protect freedom in Taiwan. After I posted a link to my letter on Facebook Michael Turton commented that the youth also need to vote.
It seems very timely that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) just released a campaign video featuring rapper Dog G* (大支) titled “Change Taiwan” (改變台灣). The DPP writes in the description (see full text and translation below) of Dog G’s video that they want youth to actively participate in and contribute their ideas to the election campaign. They go on to write, “the DPP wants to promote an overall increase in the youth vote. It is not just concerned with the overall breakdown of votes between the parties. The key point is that youth should play a key role in this election!”
The description also says that the video seeks to overthrow older people’s stereotypes about the younger generation. The lyrics intend to highlight how young people are actively engaged in society. For example, mobilising to help after the Typhoon Morakot floods and their role in the Dapu Land Grab Incident.
The video is also interesting because although it was created for the DPP, it doesn’t actually mention the DPP anywhere in the video. This follows an earlier campaign video from the DPP which also appealed to the centre ground. Peter Martin at Sinocentric noted the earlier ad, “pitches strait to the political centre-ground and tries to talk past the highly partisan debates which often characterize Taiwanese politics.”
The lyrics of the song represent a paradigm change from the ethnic-based politics of the past to a younger generation who have gone beyond ethnicity to just identify with Taiwan. Dog G sings:
我們不管藍綠綠藍這些
[We don’t care about blue versus green and green versus blue]
我們很簡單就是關心台灣，關心社會
[We just simply care about Taiwan and care about the society]
我們也沒有什麼族權問題總總
[We also don’t have a problem with different ethnic groups]
The V-sign in the video represents the word “vote”. I also suggest that V can represent “voice”. The combination of youth using their vote and their voice can change Taiwan.
*At the time this article was published rap artist 大支 used the English name Dog G. He now goes by the name Dwagie.
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Chinese-language text from the video description. English translation by David.
年輕選票成為這場選舉的關鍵力量！
Let the youth vote become this election’s key power!
Regarding Taiwan’s future, youth are taking on a key leadership role and not just standing on the sidelines as spectators. Hence, since the election campaign began the DPP has not just encouraged youth to participate in planning every aspect of the campaign, it has also let their ideas lead the way. Concerning the influence of youth groups on the election the DPP wants to promote an overall increase in the youth vote. It is not just concerned with the overall breakdown of votes between the parties. The key point is that youth should play a key role in this election!
The song “Change Taiwan” was created by well known hip hop artist Dog G. In the music video there are students from university hip hop clubs, athletes, artists and workers of every kind from all five cities* who seized the chance to film last month. The lyrics overthrow older people’s stereotypes of the youth as being the strawberry generation or indifferent to politics. The lyrics especially mention the youth response in providing disaster relief during the Typhoon Morakot floods was more effective than the government’s response. The way youth argued with the Ma government over the Dapu Land Grab Incident is another example. This emphasizes that youth are not just indifferent spectators. They are leaders with ambitions and potential to change Taiwan. The V-sign in the video means “vote” and signifies youth recognising the power of the vote. We invite every young person to use their vote to create their ideal “five cities”.
*Five cities refers to the five cities holding elections: Taipei City, Xinbei City (Taipei County), Greater Taichung, Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung.
The 2010 Justice For All Concert (正義無敵音樂會) was held in Pingtung yesterday. I arrived at the venue in the mid-afternoon while the bands were still doing their sound checks. The venue was a park in the Pingdong Sugar Factory — a big grassy area surrounded by palm trees with a banyan tree providing some nice shade.
In the late afternoon the crowd began to build as the first band Windmill (風籟坊) took to the stage. Windmill’s Hoklo rock was followed by the Hakka folk of Lin Sheng-xiang (林生祥). Sheng-xiang is well known as a protest singer and lives in Meinong, not far from Pingtung.
Next up was one of my favorite bands Aphasia (阿飛西雅). Their post-rock music contains no lyrics, but the inside cover of their album The Crocodile Society of Aphasia says, “Not having words doesn’t mean not having ideas” (沒有語言 不代表沒有意見). Their music evokes powerful emotions and in between songs Luxia Wu often makes some strong statements on the theme of justice.
After Aphasia’s set Freddy Lim made a speech mentioning that last year they didn’t organise a concert for 228 but this year they decided to do it again. Before it had always been in Taipei but if it was in Taipei every year that would be “boring”. This year they were able to get sponsorship from the Pingtung County Government. He said he hopes to hold the concert in other places around Taiwan in the future. Freddy also said that every year around 228 many people say that young people don’t love Taiwan. However, that’s not right. Young people really love Taiwan and events like this are a way of showing it.
The next bands were Hoklo punk artists LTK Commune (濁水溪公社) and Kaohsiung punk band Fire-Ex (滅火器). Last but not least ChthoniC (閃靈) appeared in their full make-up. Their latest album Mirror of Retribution is based on a story related to 228, so it was very appropriate that they performed songs from it on this occasion.
I translated the English-language sub-titles for this video for the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty (TAEDP). The video is about a case in Korea where a woman was able to forgive the man who murdered her daughter. TAEDP have worked tirelessly to abolish the death penalty in Taiwan. While they haven’t yet been successful they and done a lot of work to ensure legal review of death penalty cases and build international pressure on Taiwan.
Lin Hsin-yi (林欣怡), the executive director of TAEDP, is a great human rights activist. Campaigning against the death penalty in Taiwan does not help one to win any popularity contests. However, Hsin-yi has shown great dedication and extraordinary equanimity even when she has been threatened. She speaks about her work in this video.
David on Formosa 