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Let Us Sing Mountain Songs

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1.The Hatamsui River Has Been Writing Our Genealo

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2.The Night Buses

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3.So Let’s Sing Mountain Songs

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4.Sing Mountain Songs, So We Won’t Be Worried

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5. If the Dam Can Be Built, Then Shit Can Be Eaten

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6.The Dear Child Returns

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7.Comrades Sleep Tight Tonight

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8.Good Men and Good Women Fight the Dams

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9.Reunion

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Why We Sing "Mountain Songs" & The Formation of the "Labor Exchange Band"
We first began to sing "Mountain Songs" on April 16, 1993. April 15, 1993 marked the first time in Taiwan's history that ant-dam protesters appeared in front of the county government of Kaohsiung. The protesters organized themselves into lines, chanted slogans, and demanded that the county magistrate sign a statement against the dam. After getting his support, they went north to Taipei. About 200 people of Meinung rode four buses up north. Agriculture has been in decline for some time in Meinung, and most young people find work in other places. If you picked three people from the group that went to Taipei, odds are their total age would exceed 200 years.

On the morning of April 16, this group filed out of a cheap Taipei hotel and gathered together. The organizer Chung Hsiu-mei discovered that the group was overwhelmed by the bustling traffic and gigantic buildings. Over the megaphone, Hsiu-mei said, "I know that you're not used to this type of city, because here you can't see the Meinung Mountains, nor the green fields. But if we don't have the spirit to go to the Legislative Yuan, then people will look down on us, and our ant-dam campaign will fail. So, let's sing a Mountain Song, okay?!" The megaphone was passed from one person to the next; mountain songs were sung one after another. All of a sudden, the alienating buildings and traffic became mountains and flowing rivers. We sang all the way to the Legislative Yuan, and with heartfelt words explained how the dam in Meinung would threaten our lives, property, and ecology. The legislators were convinced to support us. The funds for the Meinung Dam from were cut from the budget.

At the end of 1993, we invited Philip B. Williams, the chair of the International Rivers Network in San Francisco, to visit and give a talk in Meinung. He talked about the international ant-dam movement, and we learnt that large dams have become a serious danger to politically weak peoples living in mountainous areas, communities along riverbanks, and also to the ecology of rivers. In April 1994, the Meinung Peoples Association was formally established, with a core group made up of young people. The group was determined to establish the ant-dam movement in the community at the grass roots level.

In May 1994, to save the cost of a hotel, we took five night buses from Meinung to Taipei, arriving at the Legislative Yuan at 5 am. We started singing "Mountain Songs," performed some skits, and raised our banners. Unlike the first time we went to the Legislatve Yuan, this tme our objectve was to get the government to clean up the polluted Kaoping River, restore the forests, reduce high water-usindustries, and give up their backward plans to build dams. At this tme, we had moved from the position of fighting against the Meinung Dam, to a general, "Ant-Dam" stance. Beginning that year, we began to support ant-dam campaigns against the building of the Macha Dam, Ruifeng Dam, and the Binnan Industrial Park.

1994 was also the year that Lin Sheng-hsiang, a student originally from Meinung studying at Tamkang University, came to visit us. He said that he was ashamed that he did not know what to reply when his friends asked him about the Meinung Dam. He said he didn't have anything to contribute except the songs he wrote and sang. He and his friends formed a band called the "Kuantze Music Pit," which was to perform at the university. He decided all proceeds the band collected would be donated to the Meinung ant-dam movement.

The music of "Kuantze Music Pit" was based on "Mountain Songs." They sang a number of excellent songs, including "Here Below the Meinung Mountains" and the "Ant-Dam Song." Those songs quickly became popular, and Lin Sheng-Hsiang was present whenever the people of Meinung had any actives, to raise the people's spirits. Lin Sheng-Hsiang completed his compulsory military service in 1997. We held a concert at the Chen Family's traditional compound house located along the oldest street of Meinung. The concert showcased the songs that the "Kuantze Music Pit" had developed over the years and that integrated traditional "Mountain Songs" into their music. In the summer of 1998, we held the "Roving Formosa Concert" in conjunction with the 4th Annual Meinung Yellow Butterfly Festival. The cooperation and discussions that took place during this time led Lin Sheng-Hsiang to begin to look at his music and participation from the perspective of a social movement, making him seriously reflect on the social and cultural meaning of his songs. Lin Sheng-Hsiang decided to return to his hometown, Meinung, in the fall of 1998.

We held the "Hakka Eight-tone Music Class" to learn about the cultural and social meaning of the Instrumental Ensemble in Hakka music and its musical characteristics, and we also visited Heng-chun, the hometown of Chen Da, who represents a particular strand of Taiwan Hoklo folk music. The ant-dam movement met its most serious challenge yet in 1998. In order to further promote the building of the dam, the Water Resource Office under the Ministry of Economic Affairs began its grand-scale propaganda offensive. The office set up coordination and exhibition centers in Chishan and Meinung. We have fought many difficult battles in coordination solidarity with the newly formed Meinung Ant-Dam Alliance and other environmental groups in southern Taiwan.

We began to think about the possibility of using music as a form of opposition, and link with the movement. If these goals are to be realized, we believe the following conditions must be met: (1) The content of the music must connect with the goals of the movement, the movement's social conditions, and the psychological reality of the people; (2) the musical form must be a dialogue between the musical language and traditions of the people involved in the movement; (3) the aesthetics of the music for the movement must contrast with various popular musical forms; (4) the musical production process must possess social meaning, and must exist in an organic and dialectic relationship with the collective movement.

In January 1999, we renovated the Chung Family's tobacco house into a music studio. Traditionally, labor on tobacco fields is arranged into reciprocal work 'teams' in Meinung. The Chung Family traditionally belonged to the 7th work team, so we called the studio the "7th Team Tobacco House Studio." We studied the labor exchange system that developed among tobacco farmers in Meinung for a lack of labor and production materials. We called our band the "Labor Exchange Band." Finally, we called the publishing house we are presently applying for, "Linking!" in hopes that our cultural movement will help to create more 'links' and alliances in the future.

"Let Us Sing Mountain Songs" hopes to present its listeners with a sense of the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the people of Meinung in their movement. We hope what we have created also has aesthetic value. If you are moved by our music, please help us in our struggle.
In solidarity,
Labor Exchange Band & Meinung Peoples Associaton, 3/20/1999

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