INTERVIEW/Taiwanese American puts groovy spins on classic Hokkien songs

Taipei, Aug. 18 (CNA) To Shinyi Lee (李欣怡, a.k.a. "rufusion"), Hokkien Taiwanese music needed an overhaul. Seeing the genre as dominated by "khàu-tiāu-á" (哭調仔, "crying songs") and lacking grooves, she set out to change it by putting her own spin on traditional Taiwanese songs.

"We are a sad people, but we don't have to be so miserable," said Lee, a Taiwanese living in Washington, D.C. and a self-taught keyboardist. "Look at the Caribbeans. They're so playful, but in fact their lives are not better than ours."

This sense of the sad nature of Taiwanese music, dating back to when she was growing up in Taiwan, inspired her to reinvent traditional Taiwanese Hokkien songs by adding grooves and infusing them with a "partying" vibe, she said.

"From my open jams over the past 20-plus years, I've learned that grooves are what people really connect to," she said.

Her project began simply by playing around on a keyboard. "It all started during COVID. I was locked in and had a lot of spare time. So I started tapping away on my computer, playing songs," she said.

The casual way she eased into the creative process belied the urgency she felt to pass down traditional Taiwanese songs, especially given the attention musicians from other parts of the globe have gotten.

In her 23 years in the United States, she said, she has often seen musicians from South America and South Korea perform their native music for American audiences, but Taiwan's government-sponsored concerts in the U.S. have been limited mostly to classical music.

Now, she has enough material for a full-length fusion album titled Formosan Groove (胡聲拍仔), which features seven adaptations of Taiwanese Hokkien songs.

Lee said she chose fusion because she enjoys experimenting with endless possibilities and does not want to be restricted by rigid rules.

"For example, in my first track, Harbor Farewell [港邊惜別], there are 12 different rhythms. That would have been rejected by conventional arrangement theories," she said.

To bring her ideas to life, Lee teamed up with two friends, Chen Cheng-lun (陳正倫) and Andy Lin (林維洋), both of whom play the erhu. Together, they formed a trio responsible for the seven tracks on Formosan Groove.

She described the album as eclectic, blending jazz, bossa nova, Taiwanese folk songs, electronica, and groove-forward, much like a Taiwanese cabbage stew in which different ingredients combine to create a rich and flavorful dish.

For Lee, incorporating Western music styles created "hooks" that draw Western audiences in, but she stressed that the music had to still retain a Taiwanese identity.

"It had to be the right mix," she said.

She hoped her work will inspire others. "You don't have to be professionally trained in music to release an album," she said.

Lee currently has six shows planned by the end of the year, three for Taiwanese American audiences and three for non-Taiwanese Americans.

Before each song, she plans to play audio recordings of the originals and share the stories behind them, weaving in American cultural references to help audiences connect.

As Lee sees it, introducing one's culture should not be forced, but a spontaneous process.

"If you want others to know you, you should know them first," Lee said. One advantage of living in a major American city, she added, is the ease of meeting musicians from around the world and exchanging ideas.

"The Taiwanese government loves to say, 'Let the world see Taiwan.' But you don't see other countries saying, 'Look at me,'" she said. "When you say that, you're already shorter than others."