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JUNK Magazine 05, 2007
Report by Jolyn
Songs From The Underground
Meet Taiwan’s Big Hip Hop Hope, Kou Chou Ching.
The Beastie Boys. Jay-Z. Kanye West. DMX. And closer to home, we've got
Too Phat. Little would you expect that there's an outfit that's been shaking
the underground hip-hop scene in Taiwan. Kou Chou Ching has been making waves
in their home country by giving hip-hop music a twist by infusing classical
Taiwanese music into their work since 2003.
“We had the idea of using traditional Taiwanese music for a long time.
It started as an experiment to make our music different from Western hip-hop,
but we found out that the music has similarities in some parts and decided to
fuse both elements of western hip-hop and classic music together. In that
sense, Western hip-hop uses 'sampling' from funk and jazz from the past, and
this is what we are doing-we sample music from the 1930s and 1940s and hope
that they become hits again,” rapper Fan Chiang says.
In a country where hip-hop isn't a big genre and still in its infant
stages, Kou Chou Ching is adamant about using their music to get youths
interested in traditional Taiwanese music again. “We learn hip-hop from the
west but we still want to put more Taiwanese elements into our music. And we
hope that people will understand that the fusion of western music and
traditional music isn't conflicting, but something sparkling” Fan Chiang adds.
While Kou Chou Ching are only relatively known in Taiwan, the internet has
been helping the band spread its music to listeners that they otherwise might
not have reached to through websites like myspace. From hearing from foreign
online media who want to write about the band and podcast listeners who feature
Kou Chou Ching's tunes, these guys agree that the internet is an excellent tool
for them to learn about the music industry and get to know lots of musicians.
And yes, in Kou Chou Ching's case, music does transcend all cultures barriers.
“We had a Middle Eastern listener who had used his podcast to introduce our
music and when I heard him saying our name and the title of our songs in his
language, it was interesting!”
How does one relate to a band who raps in Mandarin, Taiwanese and Hakka?
Sure, the guys rap about social issues that's currently happening in their
home country in their mother tongue, but the topics aren't far from what people
everywhere understand-surely, everyone has been subject to some sort of
discrimination at one point in their lives. They guys are determined to do more
with their music than just entertain. “We don't want our music to be just
about dancing, but we want to educate people with our music. There are social
problems in Taiwan which we shouldn't escape from. Let's face them and try to
educate the people.”
And that's exactly what you get if you understand Kou Chou Ching's lyrics.
The song featured in the Junk CD takes on the issue of graffiti and public arts
in Taiwan. Fan Chiang says, “graffiti is illegal in most countries so these
days more and more graffiti artists are forced to put their designs on t-shirts
so that their art is worth something. On the other hand, our government seems
to be tearing down old buildings to make way for expensive 'cultural
installations' on the streets, but the meaning of these so-called art pieces
are lost on most people. So we want people to think of what is the right value
for art, and want the government to pay more attention to building laws for
graffiti and not let graffiti just be pop products on shirts.”
The future seems be bright for this rap outfit who knows what they want out
of their music. Their 2005 debut album Fu-Ke made waves in the Taiwanese
hip-hop scene, but Kou Chou Ching aren't contented yet. “I'll let you in on a
secret.” Fan Chiang says. “We have plans to release a double CD album in the
future, but I can't tell you more. There will be over 30 tracks in the album.”
So all you hip-hop fans, here's something to look forward to sometime in the
near future: an album that will redefine hip-hop music in the region.
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只是想發揚台灣文化
http://www.kou.com.tw
[拷秋勤]
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