Wen Hsia

Wen Hsia (Chinese: 文夏; 20 May 1928 – 6 April 2022) was a Taiwanese singer and actor.

Personal life

Wen Hsia was born Wang Jui-ho in 1928, in present-day Madou District, Tainan, and studied music in Japan. He was married to Wen Hsiang, who was also a singer. Wen Hsia died in his sleep on 6 April 2022, aged 93.

Career

From the 1950s to the 1960s, Wen Hsia was known for his covers of Japanese melodies featuring Taiwanese Hokkien lyrics, a practice that began in the 1930s. These works were known as mixed-blood songs [zh]. He also sang in Japanese. Over the course of his career, Wen Hsia wrote more than 2,000 songs. During martial law in Taiwan, Hokkien pop was heavily censored and Wen Hsia became known as the "king of banned songs." Wen Hsia recorded over 1,200 songs, of which 99 were banned by Kuomintang authorities. His 1961 work, "Mama, I’m Brave" was banned for thirty years, setting a record for the longest period a Hokkien pop song was prohibited. Wen Hsia's songs became regarded as classics. At the 23rd Golden Melody Awards in 2012, Wen Hsia received the Golden Melody Lifetime Contribution Award.

As an actor, Wen Hsia starred in Joseph Kuo's remakes of the Japanese Wataridori film series, in which the protagonist was originally portrayed by Akira Kobayashi.