Hakka artists work to preserve their ‘Eight-Tone’ music in Taiwan

By Kuo Hsuan-wen and James Lo, CNA staff reporter and writer

A staple of temple events and festivals for more than a century, the “Hakka Eight-Tone” (客家八音) band has long been fundamental to the cultural identity of the Hakka people in Taiwan.

The distinctive sharp, sometimes even shrill, sound of this eight-instrument band centered around the suona, a traditional Chinese woodwind instrument, can invariably be heard during celebratory

With changes in habits and the diversification of religious beliefs, however, the popularity of the unique genre has been on the decline in recent decades, sparking concerns that it could soon die out.

To prevent that from happening, a number of Taiwanese musicians of Hakka ethnicity and the Hakka Affairs Council (HAC) have been busy working to preserve this unique musical genre by promoting it to the younger generation.

Reviving an old art form

The Eight-tone name refers to the eight materials the different instruments were to be made of — gold, stone, silk, bamboo, gourd, soil, leather and wood — though the instruments and repertoires have changed over time.

Eight-Tone expert Peng Jun-yang (彭峻暘), more commonly known as Sakyou, said being an “Eight-Tone musician” was once a proper profession and respectable career choice rather than a part-time vocation that could be picked up as a hobby on a whim.

Events big and small in Taiwan’s ethnic Hakka communities.

The declining number of temple festivities in Hakka-populated locations such as Hsinchu County, however, have led to fewer gigs and lower income streams for professional Eight-Tone musicians, contributing to the traditional art’s descent into obscurity.

Himself an apprentice to a number of Eight-Tone experts the likes of suona master Tien Wen-kuang (田文光) 10 years ago, Peng and other musicians are searching for new ways to promote the style in the hope of preserving, if not reviving, it.

Peng wants to give the genre a modern flair and create new tunes and styles while still passing it on through schools.

At a recent recital, for example, Peng invited brass instrument musicians to jam with his band to bring a jazzy twist to the traditional performance genre.

He also spends time at schools in Hsinchu County’s townships to bring Eight-Tone to the ears of Taiwan’s Hakka youths, hoping to attract the attention of the younger generation.

A sound that resonates through time

Suona master Tien is the current chief of one of, if not the oldest, Taiwan Eight-Tone bands.

Founded in 1921, the seasoned troupe is honored as one of Hsinchu County’s most accomplished performance groups that is still actively involved in local festivals and celebrations to this day.

Modernization has led to a decrease in religious celebrations and cultural festivities that highlight Eight-Tone bands, Tien said, but the Ministry of Culture has stepped in with funding to give Eight-Tone music lessons at Zhubei’s Hakka heritage buildings every Sunday.

According to Tien, lovers of the music form who have become his students range from the ages 25 to 78 and have brought new life to the old musical art.

One such student is Lu Pei-ju (呂佩儒), a graduate of Taipei National University of the Arts who is expert in both piano and the erhu, the two-stringed bowed Chinese instrument.

She said she developed an interest in Eight-Tone after being introduced to the musical art when a university student.

After becoming Tien’s student, she said she became enamored by the versatility of Eight-Tone, as it can change between soft gentle melodies to hard aggressive rhythms.

Her love of the music form led her to help her teacher’s band to publish a song book that not only details the genre in words, but also in the traditional script form Eight-Tone was written in before sheet music became the international norm.

A Hakka Affair

Aside from the music book from Tien’s band, Taiwan’s Hakka Affairs Council (HAC) has also been doing its part to archive traditional Eight-Tone tunes, which it has described as the most definitive artistic representation of Taiwan’s Hakka music culture.

The HAC compiled 76 Eight-Tone popular tunes from all across Taiwan into a music book that is accompanied by digitized music files of the songs.

It has also invited Eight-Tone bands around Taiwan to perform at special Hakka festivals, it said.

In the future, the council said it will try to fuse the genre with modern music as a means to continue the tradition.