服務故事

The Alliance Cultural Foundation (ACF) is rolling out the Stanley Yen & Friends webinar series, in which Chair Stanley Yen will chat with some of his old friends with whom they labored together for Hualien-Taitung. Each of them will share their struggles and vision for the sustainability of Hualien-Taitung.

When Chair Yen founded ACF in 2009, he believed Hualien-Taitung had the potential to become the model for sustainability for the rest of Taiwan. He uncovered the essence of tribal culture, provided a broader learning environment for tribal youth, encouraged the locals to live a lifestyle that respects the land, and led Hualien-Taitung toward the civilization it longed for. The first guest of the webinar series was Chair Yen's old friend Kimbo Hu. Hu is a native of Dawu Mountain, Taitung. He is a renowned singer, an innovator, an activist for Indigenous rights, and a connoisseur of life. He tells his stories with passion. “He is unruly and naïve. At times, he can make you both love him and be upset with him. He is an Indigenous cultural treasure!" That is how Chair Yen describes his dear friend Hu.

Friendship of a Half-Century

Their friendship began in a teppanyaki restaurant named Lost City in their 20s. As a sales representative working for American Express, Chair Yen often took local and foreign customers to Lost City to hear Hu sing western folk and blues. At the time, Hu was an English major at the National Taiwan University but took off from school to work to help pay for his father's surgery. Besides Lost City, he also performed at the coffee shop in the Columbian Embassy. "Back then, no one was interested in native music. I would only sing native songs with Stanley and a few close friends over a drink at the end of the night after the restaurant guests were gone," said Hu.

It was the 1970s when the Republic of China withdrew from the United Nations and severed diplomatic relations with the United States. As Taiwan's international status declined, the importance of local culture was awakened. The three musicians Shuang-Ze Li (李雙澤), Hu, and Hsien Yang (楊弦) rose to become the pioneers of the folk song movement. Young people started to write and sing their songs. "My songs were about Taiwan's youth of that period, about how they struggled for a better life. I sang about the era I remember dearly," said Hu. "Beautiful Rice Grain" and "Formosa" were examples of such songs.

Friendship of a Half-Century

Their friendship began in a teppanyaki restaurant named Lost City in their 20s. As a sales representative working for American Express, Chair Yen often took local and foreign customers to Lost City to hear Hu sing western folk and blues. At the time, Hu was an English major at the National Taiwan University but took off from school to work to help pay for his father's surgery. Besides Lost City, he also performed at the coffee shop in the Columbian Embassy. "Back then, no one was interested in native music. I would only sing native songs with Stanley and a few close friends over a drink at the end of the night after the restaurant guests were gone," said Hu.

It was the 1970s when the Republic of China withdrew from the United Nations and severed diplomatic relations with the United States. As Taiwan's international status declined, the importance of local culture was awakened. The three musicians Shuang-Ze Li (李雙澤), Hu, and Hsien Yang (楊弦) rose to become the pioneers of the folk song movement. Young people started to write and sing their songs. "My songs were about Taiwan's youth of that period, about how they struggled for a better life. I sang about the era I remember dearly," said Hu. "Beautiful Rice Grain" and "Formosa" were examples of such songs.

Regain the Dignity of Indigenous People Through Music

Hu left his hometown to attend school in Tamsui, Taipei, at age 11. He recalls that when he visited Taipei's China Plaza while in high school, he spotted a lot of his fellow natives.

"I thought to myself, what happened to the tribes? Weren't we supposed to be self-sustainable? Why did they all have to leave their homes to make a living? I found out that they either worked in mines or at construction sites. They lived by the Xindian River in shabby huts built with construction boards." After learning about their living conditions, I told myself, "These are serious problems. I should not forget why I came to get an education and that no one would recognize these problems if I did not speak up. What I could do was to regain our dignity through my music." That was when the song "Dawu Mountain, Our Beautiful Mother" was written. Behind the soulful lyrics was his anger about the Aboriginal girls forced into child prostitution. Not only that, Hu and his friends, armed with pocket knives, also rescued numerous young prostitutes.

Taiwan's economy took off in the 1980s, but it also widened the gap between the rich and the poor. The Aboriginals became an economically disadvantaged group. In 1984, there was an explosion at the Haishan coal mine. Hu went to the scene and saw that most of the victims were Amis natives from Hualien-Taitung. That night, he wrote the song "Why?". That same year, he also established the organization "Indigenous People for Affirmative Action" and dedicated himself to the social movement for the rights and interests of the Indigenous people. "I was not the ideal fit for leading social movements, but at the time, I felt the need to lead the initiative and then pass the baton to the more skilled. As a musician, I must have an in-depth understanding of my compatriots' suffering; that is the true mission of folk songs." In an era when martial law was still in place, that journey was difficult and dangerous. "But you would not mind such challenges when you know you are doing it for your ultimate dignity" said Hu.

A portrait of their friendship, 1 of 2: Promote Taiwan overseas. After joining the Aboriginal movement, considering the political sensitivity, Hu cut ties with many of his friends, including Chair Yen. Twenty years later, they reconnected when Hu called Chair Yen. Chair Yen recognized his voice on the phone right away. The lyrics of the song "In a Flash" describe the emotion of that moment. This reunion brought Hu back to Taipei. Chair Yen was then the Chair of the Taiwan Visitors Association; he often took friends from Taiwan's arts and culture community overseas to promote Taiwan. Hu, with his fluent English and charming singing voice, became one of the most important representatives of Taiwan's Indigenous culture. During this time, even though he was not physically in Taitung, his hometown's mountains, rivers, and oceans were always in his songs. Not against a highway but to preserve the land; Chair Yen's earliest encounter with Hualien was when he served his military duty by the Qixing Lake (Qixingtan) in Hualien. Hence, Hualien-Taitung has a special place in his heart. In 2007, Chair Yen, along with Hwai-min Lin (林懷民), Ying-tai Lung (龍應台), Hsiao-hsien Hou (侯孝賢), Lu Hsu (徐璐), Tzu-hsien Tung (童子賢), all recognized leaders in their respective fields, held a press conference opposing the project to build the Suhua Highway Improvement Project. "It was an outcry, a plea to preserve the beautiful land for future generations to be proud of." Chair Yen recalls, "Taiwan's economy was booming; people were thinking of large-scale infrastructure developments. The government budgeted one hundred billion to invest in the Suhua Highway Improvement Project. I asked the government to reserve over 50 billion of that budget for the Hualien-Taitung Perpetual Fund, which is still used today. For that, I endured a lot of pressure. I promised myself that I would return to Hualien-Taitung after my retirement. I hoped to prove with my actions that Hualien-Taitung is a region that Taiwan can be proud of.

The World is Sufficient For Your Need, Not Your Greed

One-third of Taitung's population is Indigenous. Hence, Taitung is rich in Indigenous cultural resources. In the past 13 years, Chair Yen was committed to introducing the Aboriginal culture to a broader audience. He encouraged learning from nature, regaining the ability to harmonize with nature, and rediscovering the value of life. Hu said our ancestors often told us, "If you need a window or a door, then take a piece of wood sufficient for it, don't take the whole tree. This world is not enough for your greed but sufficient for your needs."

"Whenever I come home, I drop my luggage, head out to find a creek and follow it up the stream. Once, I found a creek that took me to a place I had never been. It was a deep gully with big rocks. I sat on a rock and let the water flow past my body. Birds sang and bugs chirped, those were the sounds I longed for. I collected fruit along the way, just as the elders did as a child. That is my life in Taitung." said Hu.

Those sounds reminded Hu of the way the tribal elderlies sang. When the natives sing, they do not get on stage or podium. They let it out naturally. "In the Paiwan and Rukai languages, the word kisenay is used. Ki means to take, and senay means song. Kisenay is to take out the song. God blesses music; It comes from one's heart. To sing is to be blessed. Kisenay means a lot to me. Taking the song out from deep inside me, letting it wander around, and then finding its way back into my heart - This is how I feel about music." said Hu.