A film about Atayal singer Inka Mbing's experiences at Germany's largest folk music festival in Rudolstadt will be shown at this year's MMF. (Courtesy of Trees Music and Art)
By June Tsai
Toward the end of summer in recent years, Taipei's urbanites invariably, and eagerly, have come to expect some alternative offerings to enrich their cultural lives, and the Migration Music Festival never lets them down.
Themed around the broad topic of migration--a phenomenon palpable in big cities around the world--the MMF offers musical programs that focus on the sometimes-neglected cultural fare of traditional and folk music, as well as some of the different aspects that go along with human migration. The festival began its work of presenting thought-provoking performances while indulging the musical senses in 2001. Today music, film screenings, workshops and seminars still fill its program.
This year's theme is "City Borders," which aims at drawing attention to those who live on the border of different cultures and "dwell on the periphery of a multicultural setting," according to a media release from the event's main organizer, Trees Music and Art--a Taipei-based independent recording label.
Thus, the festival, opening Sept. 27 and continuing to Oct. 6, will showcase creations that are a hybrid of cultures. One example is Romanian trio "STriCat," now based in Amsterdam, who play accordion, trumpet and cimbalom. The group's music "combines Romanian folk music with migratory factors in the multicultural Dutch capital."
Continuing the theme of crossing borders, the musical dialogue between two men from regions with a history of conflict might draw special attention at the event. Palestinian Sameer Makhoul from Galilee, who sings and plays the oud, an Arabic lute, partners with Israeli percussionist Itamar Doari to offer traditional Arabic music with a modern slant.
Huong Thanh, a Paris-based singer who hails from Ho Chi Minh City, also combines classical training with modern sounds. Having studied cai luong--Vietnamese modern folk opera--since the age of 10, Huong Thanh was initiated into jazz music in France and mixes various musical styles. Ian Anderson, editor of the authoritative London-based Folk Roots magazine, describes her music as "modern as it gets."
Taiwan's Panai, from the island's eastern coast, is a Pinuyumayan-Amis singer-songwriter who also plays guitar. Her soothing, yet powerful voice has earned her a reputation as the "Tracy Chapman of Taiwan." Yet, to be herself, Panai crossed the city border by returning to her community in Taitung County, and now dedicates her time to local communities, collecting tribal sounds, planning music workshops and farming.
Japanese guitarist and composer Ken Ohtake has been a guest at the festival twice before and appears this year with two musicians from Taiwan, pipa player Chung Yu-feng and Hakka musician Lin Sheng-xiang. Ohtake says jazz, blues and pop are the building blocks of his music, although he has also absorbed the sounds of traditional music from the island of Okinawa through his work with renowned Okinawan folk musician Takashi Hirayasu. Ohtake also collaborated with Lin at the 2003 festival, and together with Hirayasu, have since partnered on many musical projects.
One change to this year's festival is that there will be a charge for admission. TMA director Chung Shefong announced that, due to financial pressures, the organization felt it had little choice but to sell tickets in order to maintain the quality of performances.
Indeed, with such a diverse program, it is difficult to imagine how it was possible to offer festival performances as free to the public in previous years. Chung says it was a difficult task, especially as the festival highlights the situation of the marginalized from societies around the world.
In fact, other alternative music festivals in Taiwan have faced a variety of pressures this year. In July, the organizers of the annual Formoz Festival announced they are suspending the event indefinitely, in part because of financial difficulties. Another, the Ho Hai Yan Festival in Taipei County, is being developed as a vehicle for promoting tourism by the local government and has become more commercial. Still, the organizers of the MMF are committed to continuing their event as a venue for alternative music.
In keeping with the festival's theme, some events will also be staged in Taipei and Chiayi counties--geographically and culturally on the periphery in relation to the capital Taipei where cultural activities are concentrated.
Judging from the lineup for the 2008 festival, this year's event carries on the same feeling of previous years, despite the smaller scale. Moreover, the ideals of the organizers as stated in 2006 are just as apt today: "Taiwan is realizing the significance of immigrants in its society, as both its culture and music begin to show the influences of different ethnic groups."
"By inviting musicians from other countries to share the stage with local musicians, the festival hopes to foster respect and tolerance islandwide, which will carry over to all peoples and cultures of the world."
This article is published in Taiwan Journal Oct. 3, 2008.
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