Written by Hsin-Wen Hsu
Over the past two decades, Taiwan’s Hakka popular music has undergone major transformations. Many musicians and scholars note that since the 2000s, Hakka popular music has diversified. For example, Liu Chen describes how “musical forms are blossoming” and “thematic range becomes broader,” and Lee Ming-Chao observes that “a younger generation of Hakka talents is emerging, and musical genres are highly diverse…revealing the richness of Hakka music.” Yet, few have further explored the content and cultural implications of Hakka popular music production from the 2000s to the present.
This article argues that, compared with earlier themes such as couple flirting, countryside nostalgia, and “Hakka ethnicity,” an increasing number of Hakka popular musicians after the millennium have responded to rapidly shifting social and ecological conditions. Their works address social encounters shaped by translocal mobility, linguistic and cultural hybridity, dramatic ecological changes, multilayered forms of separation caused by pandemics, and technologically conditioned interpersonal relations—phenomena that characterise “post-global conditions”. Through their stories, musicians negotiate new boundaries and reconfigure past, present, and future modes of Hakka communal existence.
The discourse of post-global conditions emerged around the anti-globalisation movements of 1999–2000. It does not claim the end of globalisation. Instead, as Gesine Müller and Benjamin Loy indicate, it is “an attempt at a critical discursive and epistemological response to the production, consequences, and asymmetries of globality itself.” It highlights the asymmetric risks of globalisation, severe ecological impacts of late-capitalist production, and their effects on local politics, society, and culture, including multipolar power structures, uneven resource distribution, new communication technologies shaping cultural exchange, and the emergence of new borders and cross-domain networkings.
How, then, do Taiwanese Hakka musicians engage with these concerns? What do their musical articulations of post-global conditions imply for Taiwan Studies? The following sections outline several ways in which Hakka musicians respond to post-global realities, forming the basis for the concluding discussion.
I. Ecological and Existential Transformation
The discourse of post-global conditions is less concerned with the abundance created by globalisation and more with the problems it leaves behind. Scholars such as Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing and Steven Feld have long examined the ecological and social consequences of economic globalisation, and contemporary Hakka musicians also respond to these issues.
For example, in A-Tao Chen (陳永淘)’s album Spinning Top (極樂, 2020), he reflects on a world engulfed by turbulence, suggesting that humanity faces unprecedented dangers. His response advocates aligning with nature—living simply and contentedly. Similarly, Liu Jung-Chang (劉榮昌)’s On the Way Home (沿路・日常, 2020) focuses on embracing daily life amid uncertainties. Both resonate with ecologism. In contrast, works by the Sheng-Xiang & Band (生祥樂隊), such as “Grass” from the album titled I-Village (我庄, 2013), “Village Besieged” from the self-titled album (圍庄／動身, 2016), and “Water Snowflake Goes to Market” from the self-titled album (野蓮出庄, 2020)—critique the ecological destruction caused by human activity. These works align more closely with deep ecology, probing the roots of environmental crises and human responsibility.
II. Challenges and Struggles in Local Economies and Societies
Beyond ecological concerns, Hakka popular music also depicts the socioeconomic struggles faced by local communities. The Labour Exchange Band’s (交工樂隊) landmark album The Night March of the Chrysanthemums (菊花夜行軍, 2001) narrates the experiences of rural youth confronting the aftermath of Taiwan’s 1990s economic bubble and returning home after urban disappointment.
The opening tracks, “County Road 184” (縣道184) and “My Old 125 cc Motorcycle” (風神125), portray the fictional character Ah-Cheng’s disillusionment after returning to his rural hometown. “The Worriers” (愁上愁下) expresses his parents’ anxieties. Later, “Ah-Cheng Wants to Be a Farmer” (阿成想耕田) and the title track “The Night March of the Chrysanthemums” depict how Taiwan’s WTO accession opened the market to low-priced imported flowers, devastating local farmers like Ah-Cheng. “Ah-Cheng Goes to Southeast Asia” (阿成下南洋) follows his journey to Nanyang to marry under the arrangement of intermediaries. “Ah-Fen’s Carrying a Baby” (阿芬擐人) recounts his wife’s migration to Taiwan, childbirth, and adaptation. Finally, “After a Long Period a Strange Place Becomes Home” (日久他鄉是故鄉) describes Ah-Fen joining literacy classes with other Southeast Asian migrants, forming mutual support networks. Echoing David Harvey’s insights, recent developments in Taiwanese society reveal that while global capital flows open new markets, they also destabilise local communities. Here, the Labour Exchange Band’s music becomes a sonic archive of post-global Taiwan, documenting how local people endure and respond to structural pressures.
III. Migrant Experiences and the Insights of Translocal Encounters
In addition to depicting new immigrants in Taiwan, many works portray the struggles of translocal migrants—including musicians themselves. Huang Zi-Suan (黃子軒) created a trilogy on the theme of “going home.” The single “The Way Home” (回家的路, 2012), co-produced with Ken Chou, expresses homesickness after years in Taipei’s music industry; the album Alien (異鄉人, 2015) by Zi-Xuan & Slow Train portrays the bittersweet life of working away from home—friendship, loneliness, drifting, and discrimination; the album Up the Mountain (上鄉, 2020) by the same band documents Huang Zi-Suan’s decision to return to his hometown and become a community worker.
Up the Mountain also captures contemporary urban youth who return home to pursue ideals of environmental education. Importantly, the album embodies translocal collaboration made possible by shrinking space–time distances: it features Taiwanese band Sorry Youth and musician Baobu Badulu, Japanese guitarist Ken Ohtake, Malaysian musician Mathew Ngau Jau, and Indonesian musician Deejay (DJ) Theory. Their collaboration reflects vibrant exchanges across musical worlds, languages, and cultures.
Beyond documenting migrant life, some works recount musicians’ overseas engagements. For example, “Siniawan” (堯灣) from Up the Mountain records Huang Zi-Suan’s 2018 trip to Sarawak’s Siniawan under Taiwan’s “New Southbound Policy” (新南向政策). The two musicians who travelled with him—Hsu Shih-Hui (A May, 徐世慧) and Chen Wei-Ru (陳瑋儒)—also later released songs about this journey. Their joint piece “I Love Siniawan” (我愛新堯灣) commemorates interactions with local Hakka residents speaking Hepo Hakka (河婆客語). Chen Wei-Ru’s “Teh C Ben” and “Sarawak Is My Home” (Sarawak是我的家) narrate the taste of Sarawak’s famous three-layer milk tea and the historical migration of Hakka people from southern China to Malaysia. These works show how space–time compression enables musicians’ translocal encounters, which become central themes in their creativity.
IV. The Emergence of New Borders and Networks
Border studies scholars, such as Victor Konrad, note that post-global conditions entail new forms of bordering practices that regulate the movement of people, objects, and ideas, as well as individual acts of evading technological surveillance as resistance. In Taiwan, ideological confrontations, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the pervasive use of social media have generated new forms of isolation, which are also reflected in Hakka popular music.
Sheng-Xiang & Band’s “Inquiry into Monkey Chatter in the Legislative Chamber,” from the album Kafka on the Rivers-and-Lakes (江湖卡夫卡, 2023), turns Taiwan’s parliamentary conflicts and rhetorical battles into musical critique. Meanwhile, Han (黃宇寒)’s album Return to Reality (虛空現下, 2021) depicts ruptures of interpersonal relations during the pandemic. She notes that isolation increased reliance on online communication, platform anonymity, and the fear of revealing one’s true self. In her album Story Power (故事力, 2022), she further explores online interactions. “Truth or Fake” (楚門) continues the theme of bullying, reflecting a livestream-dominated society reminiscent of The Truman Show (1998); “Queen” (皇后) tackles appearance anxiety in social media culture, encouraging listeners to embrace their authentic selves.
Yet post-global conditions such as the pandemic did not only create rupture—they also fostered new connections. In an interview, Yen Chih-Wen (顏志文) noted that during lockdowns, he and other members of New San-geu-tai Band (山狗大後生樂團) collaborated remotely with Singapore’s Straits Ensemble, recording online and co-creating across borders. Their album Connecting Islands (島嶼連結, 2022) resulted from this process. When they finally reunited after the pandemic for in-person performances, he felt the preciousness of “re-touching and reconnecting.” Today, hybrid online/offline modes of work remain part of many musicians’ lives, creating new relationalities.
V. New Language Practices and Identity Politics
Linguistic hybridity, identity multiplicity, and the rethinking of “mother tongue” form another key dimension of post-global conditions—also reflected in Hakka popular music. For example, as a second-generation immigrant in Taiwan, Han grew up multilingual—Mandarin, Hakka, Teochew, Indonesian, and Hokkien. Although these backgrounds once caused identity confusion, realising others’ interest in her diverse experiences encouraged her to share her stories through music. In songs such as “Someday” (有時有日) and “Keep Going” (繼續走吧), she mixes Hakka and Indonesian, turning linguistic hybridity into expressive aesthetics.
Different from Han’s personal narrative, ChuNoodle (春麵樂隊)’s Descend Up, Ascend Down (下回上去) aims to express “polyphonic equality.” Their chamber-like instrumentation—guitar, clarinet, bass clarinet, and voice—supports multilingual singing (Hakka, Taiwanese, and Mandarin). Vocalist Lai Yu-Chiao openly acknowledges having grown up in a Mandarin-dominant urban environment with limited Hakka proficiency. Yet, she seeks to transform this “non-standardness” from a linguistic deficiency into an aesthetic resource.
In contrast to these hybridising approaches, other musicians challenge longstanding linguistic ideologies and cultural hierarchies. The punk band Traegoband (粹垢)’s “Hakka Sucker” inserts Hakka phonology into punk textures, expressing the anger of marginalised Hakka youth. Meanwhile, artists such as Kung Ta (龔德)’s “Light Off” (反躁的夜) and “Best of You”, as well as Zi-Suan & Slow Train’s “Zao Te (Dry It)” (燥忒) and “Travel the World” (環遊世界) use wordplay and reduplication to make Hakka sound approachable and playful.
VI. Conclusion: Sensing Translocal Taiwan through Hakka Popular Music
The above cases demonstrate that post-global conditions constitute a shared thematic terrain in Hakka popular music since the 2000s. These works reveal how musicians mediate local soundscapes, engage historical experiences, and respond to contemporary issues. Hakka popular music thus becomes not merely music in Hakka or about Hakka identity, but a way of hearing interethnic relations within Taiwan and Taiwan’s connections to other worlds. Listening to post-global conditions in Hakka popular music is, therefore, a meaningful mode of sensing translocal Taiwan itself.
Hsu Hsin-Wen is Associate Professor and Director of the Graduate Institute of Ethnomusicology at National Taiwan Normal University. He earned his PhD in Ethnomusicology from Indiana University Bloomington. His research examines the institutionalisation of Hakka musics in Taiwan and beyond, from the heritagisation of Hakka bayin to the contextual musicking of Hakka hymns and the evolving soundscape of Hakka popular music. In recent years, he has also focused on how AI technologies and human–machine co-intelligence may contribute to the sustainability of human musicality.
This article was published as part of a special issue on ‘Sonic Worlds, Acoustic Politics and Hearing in Taiwan‘.
Taiwan Insight 