The lead singer and guitarist for the Taiwanese band TUDI-VOICE has a lot to say about language. In an interview with Pancouver, A-Tat declares that folk music cannot exist without the land, and the land cannot exist without mother tongues.
“Our mother tongue tells us who we are and where we come from,” A-Tat tells Pancouver in an interview. “No matter where we go in the world, our identity is the foundation of our presence and our strength.”
But mother tongues have not always been treated with respect by past rulers of Taiwan. Under Japanese colonial rule, police stations operated schools in rural regions where Indigenous kids were forced to assimilate into Japanese culture. Japan, which ruled the island from 1895 to 1945, also discouraged the use of Hokkien, which is A-Tat’s mother tongue, as well as Hakka. Both had been spoken for centuries by the island’s non-Indigenous residents of Chinese ancestry.
Things didn’t improve after Japan’s defeat in the Second World War when Chiang Kai-shek moved his authoritarian Kuomintang government to Taiwan after losing the Chinese Civil War to the Communists. The dictator mandated Mandarin in public spaces, including schools. Moreover, those who didn’t conform were publicly shamed.
“This policy wasn’t lifted until I was in second grade,” A-Tat says. “As a result, all mother tongues other than Mandarin are now endangered.”
TUDI-VOICE cellist Chen Li-chun and frontman A-Tat perform “Native Tongue (阿母的話)”.
TUDI-VOICE sings in Hokkien
To draw attention to historic linguistic repression in his island nation, A-Tat and his bandmates recorded the single “Native Tongue (阿母的話)” for TUDI-VOICE’s most recent album, The Song for You. It won Best Folk Song at the 2024 Golden Indie Music Awards.
“My son and I primarily speak Taiwanese, but few children his age can speak their heritage language,” A-Tat reveals. “At school, he has no classmates to converse with in Taiwanese. This is a very serious issue in Taiwan today. I wrote this song to highlight the issue of mother tongue loss, to remind everyone of its value and importance, and to ask: who cut off our native tongues?”
TUDI-VOICE is one of three Taiwanese music acts at Toronto TAIWANfest’s Rally for Taiwan: Music in the Soundscape of Democracy 拉力台灣：音樂在民主的聲場中. This free concert runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on Saturday (August 23) and plays on the Taiwanese tradition of musicians performing at large rallies. The Taiwanese Hakka punk band Traego and Truku singer-songwriter Lihaw Lihang will also each play a set.
Moreover, the concert offers a testament to Taiwan’s linguistic diversity because TUDI-VOICE sings in Hokkien. Taiwan has experienced a revival of mother tongues on the island since dictatorship gave way to democracy in the 1990s, but there is still not nearly enough progress to satisfy A-Tat.
“Before the Kuomintang came to Taiwan, Mandarin Chinese barely existed here,” the musician says. “In fact, it has been on this island for less than 80 years, yet it dominates all other languages. Through generations of language suppression and brainwashing by party-state education, we were made to forget our mother tongues and our own cultures, and to believe we were Chinese.
“I believe that revitalizing our languages helps us reclaim our roots—our mother tongues, our cultural identities—and recognize our history from a Taiwanese perspective, not a Greater China one.”
A-Tat returns to his roots
TUDI-VOICE formed in 2006 and participated in many protests in those early days. The band emerged with its messages for environmental justice and land reforms in the wake of a Taiwanese farmer, Yang Ju-men, planting homemade rice-filled explosives in public places to protest Taiwan joining the World Trade Organization. Known as the “Rice Bomber”, he caused minor damage but no injuries—and generated more sympathy for farmers facing economic hardships.
The band’s first album in 2009, Damn Government, reflected its revolutionary roots with hard-driving rock sounds. It followed that up with Return Our Land. For A-Tat, a major change came when he and his partner, TUDI-VOICE cellist Chen Li-chun, decided to move away from their long-time home in bustling Taichung City in 2015 and settle in their hometown of Changhua. (The other two members of the band are bassist Tsai Hsien and percussionist Avon Lai, a.k.a. Djembe.)
“I grew up in the countryside and only moved to a small town for high school at 16, and then to a big city for university,” A-Tat says. “Rural life, although less convenient, has a lower population density, a relaxed pace, a closer connection to nature, lower living costs, and more warmth and spontaneity in human relationships—qualities I’ve always naturally preferred.”
As their lifestyle evolved, so did their music. In the band’s early years where it participated in street protests, A-Tat would often ask himself what comes after the revolution.
“In our early days, we prioritized our ideals and used music as a tool,” he states. “Starting with the album Roots and especially in Hōo Lí ê Kua, we began to place equal importance on musicality and message. Music enhances the emotional depth of our lyrics, allowing our ideas to move listeners more deeply.”
Watch this preview (above) for Rally for Taiwan.
TUDI-VOICE seeks systemic change
Over time, the cerebral A-Tat concluded that many of Taiwan’s problems stem from a core issue: Taiwan exists under a colonial regime, the exiled Republic of China.
“Its constitutional structure is a lie created by the Chiang regime,” A-Tat insists. “Officials and politicians in this system don’t treat Taiwan as a normal country or work to improve its society. Party-state education has also cut us off from our roots.”
Once he realized this, he says that he decided to start by “being a normal Taiwanese person”. To him, that entailed re-reading Taiwanese historical documents and learning traditional music, such as Nanguan, Beiguan, Taiwanese opera, yueqin chants, folk ballads from Hengchun, and local cultural festivals. He hopes to bring these elements into the band’s music.
“We sing for land justice, human rights, environmental issues, and transitional justice,” A-Tat says. “Using folk music to tells the beauty and sorrows of this island—whether through its musicality, lyrical content, or language—our music is truly made in Taiwan.”
However, he also thinks that the “toxic legacy” of the Kuomintang won’t vanish so easily.
“In rural areas like ours, we still see the effects of authoritarian local politics—fear of politics, anxiety around voting, and deeply ingrained conservative and reactionary attitudes,” A-Tat maintains. “These are the issues we’ve always addressed in our music, and we continue to challenge them. We hope every Taiwanese person can live freely and be themselves, uninfluenced by this authoritarian society.”
Toronto TAIWANfest will present TUDI-VOICE at Rally for Taiwan: Music in the Soundscape of Democracy 拉力台灣：音樂在民主的聲場中. This free concert runs from 5:30 to 9 p.m. on August 23 on the Concert Stage at Harbourfront Centre. Rally for Taiwan will also feature the Taiwanese Hakka punk band Traego and Truku singer-songwriter Lihaw Lihang. In addition, A-Tat will deliver a free “Hope Talk” at 5 p.m. on Sunday (August 24) at the Lookout at Harbourfront Centre.
Ann Cheng translated A-Tat’s responses into English for this Toronto Spark article. Follow the Toronto Spark on X @TOSparkOfficial and Bluesky @torontospark.bsky.social.
