Later this month, diasporic Canadian artists with Asian ancestry will share concert stages with Taiwanese performers in Taipei. The third annual Jade Music Fest in Asia will feature seven GTA musicians and songwriters: Jacq Teh, Tennyson King, Violet Ziyi Grace, Chinyi C, Eunice Keitan, Aiko Tomi, and the headliner, Tataskweyak Cree Nation member Sebastian Gaskin. They’ll be joined by Vancouver’s Kristin Fung and Van Lefan, along with Massachusetts-based Scott Hsu.
The free festival runs from April 24 to 26 in Huashan 1914 Creative Park. It’s also a presenting partner with the Society of We Are Canadians Too., which founded the annual Jade Music Fest in Vancouver in 2022.
The Taiwanese lineup includes Zixuan & Slow Train, Mango Jump, Pisco, Chen Yi Heng, Nanwang Sisters, Cliff, Vuize, Chiu Shu, Night Keepers, Lizi, Giyu Tjuljaviya, and Rapshark. Malaysian singer-songwriter Straw Lim, Singaporean-born and -raised Chinyi C, and Lizi, who has Burmese heritage, all add a Southeast Asian flavour to the event.
“Jade Music Fest is first and foremost a music festival—but one that connects people through language, heritage, and shared stories,” said Charlie Wu, general manager of the Society of We Are Canadians Too. “Through music, we are building a bridge between Canada and Taiwan that audiences can hear, feel, and experience.”
After winning Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year at the 2025 JUNO Awards, Gaskin was nominated in this category for a second time in 2026. On his website, the multi-instrumentalist declares that his music is “intentionally genre amorphous” as it conjures “the timeless spirit of Bill Withers and the musical virtuosity of John Mayer, with the mischievous wordplay of Post Malone and Pro Era”.
Jade fest connects Indigenous musicians
Jade Music Fest in Asia will feature Gaskin at its Indigenous Opening along with two Taiwanese Indigenous Golden Melody Award–winning acts. The Nanwang Sisters are members of Taiwan’s Pinuyumayan tribe, whereas Tjuljaviya belongs to the Paiwan tribe.
This marks the second consecutive year that Jade Music Fest in Asia has paired Indigenous artists from Canada and Taiwan. Last year, Oji-Cree recording artist Aysanabee performed in Huashan 1914 Creative Park as part of a tour that included visits to Indigenous schools in Taiwan.
In an interview with the Toronto Spark last year, Aysanabee said that he saw parallels between the harsh colonization of Taiwan—and its effect on many Indigenous nations—and colonization in North America. In both instances, the colonizers suppressed Indigenous languages and cultures while seizing large swaths of their traditional territories.
“The Jade Music Fest brought us to these different communities where they shared songs,” Aysanabee, a four-time JUNO winner, recalled. “We were in the south and this Elder sang a traditional song with a hand drum in front of what was kind of like a longhouse. He was singing a song that sounded so familiar to me as an Indigenous person from Canada.”
Wu noted that several Indigenous artists from Taiwan have performed at Canadian festivals in recent years. As a result, Taiwanese Indigenous performers are becoming far more familiar with challenges faced by Indigenous communities on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.
B.C. fests welcome Taiwanese Indigenous acts
This summer, a widely admired Indigenous singer from southern Taiwan, Sauljaljui, will perform at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival and Mission Folk Music Festival in B.C. The Golden Melody Award winner sings in her native Paiwan language. Last year, she shared the Outdoor Stage with Aysanabee in Huashan 1914 Creative Park.
Then in late August and early September, the Nanwang Sisters will perform at Toronto TAIWANfest and Vancouver TAIWANfest. The Golden Melody Award-winning trio—Samingad, Lavaus, and I hua—hail from Nanwang Village in Taitung County. They reconstruct stories of Taiwan’s Indigenous people through the interplay of music and theatre. In 2009, their self-titled Nanwang Sisters album earned them three Golden Melody Awards for Best Vocal Group, Best Indigenous Language Album, and Best Album Producer.
These partnerships between Taiwanese and Canadian Indigenous musicians are yet another reflection of the growing internationalization of the Indigenous people’s movement. It began in earnest when famed Grand Chief George Manuel (1921-1989) launched the World Council of Indigenous Peoples in the mid-1970s. The Secwépemc leader was a survivor of the notorious Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia.
At the Second General Assembly of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples in Sweden in 1977, Manuel proposed an international declaration to protect the rights of Indigenous peoples across the globe. That set in motion a lengthy process leading to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Jade emphasizes equality of languages
Wu hopes that Canadian cultural leaders notice Jade Music Fest’s success in forging cross-Pacific Indigenous connections through music. The fifth annual Jade Music Fest in Vancouver is scheduled for November 5 to 8.
Meanwhile, Jade Music Fest in Asia’s slogan is “Hear Canada, Feel Taiwan”. It reinforces the festival’s goal of introducing Canadian musicians to Taiwanese audiences.
Many of these Canadian singers and songwriters are bilingual or multilingual. As a result, they often perform some or all of their repertoire in Taiwan in their heritage Chinese languages, whether that’s Mandarin, Hokkien (Taiwanese), Hakka, or Cantonese.
In fact, the festival emphasizes “language equality” as part of its mission. It is English-friendly in Taiwan so as not to discriminate against diasporic artists who prefer performing in English. At the same time, Jade Music Fest is committed to building a global network of Chinese-language musicians. And Wu is delighted that the festival has been the catalyst for several subsequent musical collaborations between Canadian artists of Asian ancestry and between artists living on both side of the Pacific Ocean.
“We aim to create a one-stop platform for Chinese-language music that is continuous online and offline,” Jade Music Fest states on its website.
For more information on the Jade Music Fest in Asia, visit the website. Learn more about the communities that make up Canada on the Toronto Spark website. The Toronto Spark is on Bluesky @torontospark.bsky.social.
