Lin Sheng Xiang

Lin Shengxiang (Mandarin: 林生祥)(November 25, 1971–) is an independent music composer born in Meinong, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, known for his Hakka compositions that are concerned with his hometown.

Biographic sketch

Lin Sheng Xiang graduated from Tainan No. 2 High School and Tamkang University. During his college years, he founded the Kuan Tsu Music Pit (Mandarin: 觀子音樂坑) and served as guitarist and vocalist. After returning to Meinong, Kuan Tsu Music Pit reformed into "Labor Exchange Band" (Mandarin: 交工樂隊), playing guitar, Yueqin, sanxian, and vocals, and after Labor Exchange Band disbanded, Sheng Xiang and Wajao Pit 3 (Mandarin: 生祥與瓦窯坑3) formed for the release of the album "Getting Dark" (Mandarin: 臨暗), playing guitar and vocals. After that, he played guitar, Yueqin and vocals for "Sheng Xiang & Band" (Mandarin: 生祥樂隊) with an indefinite number of members.

After Labor Exchange Band disbanded in 2003, Lin Sheng Xiang continued to collaborate with Chung Yung Feng (Mandarin: 鍾永豐) on lyrics, and since the album "Planting Trees" (Mandarin: 種樹), he has been working with Japanese guitarist Ken Ohtake (Mandarin: 大竹研) on his music. Bassist Toru Hayakawa (Mandarin: 早川徹) joined the band in the spring of 2010 on Ken Ohtake's recommendation, and they have been working together since the album "The Land Is My Study" (Mandarin: 大地書房), and in the summer of 2011, percussionist Alex Wu (Mandarin: 吳政君) joined the band before they went to Japan to perform at the Fuji Rock Festival, and in July 2012, the band changed its name because their friends made a stroke of their name and thought that it would be good luck for the band to be named "Sheng Xiang & Band" (Mandarin: 生祥樂隊). In 2012, the band commissioned luthier Liu Zhi-Wei to make a six-stringed Yueqin, Kanaji Kawabaka (Mandarin: 川畑完之) to make an electric moon organ, and customized a unique moon organ.

In 2015, he recorded the anti-air pollution concept double album "Village Besieged" (Mandarin: 圍庄), including the second part "Village Besieged" and the third part "Moving On" (Mandarin: 動身) of the "I-Village Trilogy" (Mandarin: 我庄), with musicians Ken Ohtake, Toru Hayakawa, Noriaki Fukushima (Mandarin: 福島紀明), Alex Wu and Huang Po Yu (Mandarin: 黃博裕). The "Village Besieged" concept double album sought to raise funds on online platforms in 2016 as it did not receive record label investment. The Village Besieged double album was released on May 21, 2016, and has been on campus tour since of October 2016, eventually winning the Golden Melody Award Jury Prize.

In 2017 Lin Sheng Xiang and Wang Zhao-hua (Mandarin: 王昭華) collaborated to produce the movie soundtrack of "The Great Buddha+" (Mandarin: 大佛普拉斯), which won the Golden Horse Award for Best Original Film Song and the Golden Melody Award for Best Single Producer.

Musical works

• Chatting in the Village (June 1998, Lin Sheng Xiang, Chung Shing Tat, Chung Shing Fu, Chan Kwun Yu)
• Touring Beautiful Island – Kuan Tsu Music Pit 98' Come and See the Land Tour (August 1998, Lin Sheng Xiang, Zhong Cheng-Da, Zhong Cheng-Hu, Guanyu Chen)

• Let Us Sing Mountain Songs (1999)
• The Night March of the Chrysanthemums (2001)

• Getting Dark (2004, Lin Sheng Xiang, Chung Yufeng, Rio Lu, Peng Jia Xi)

• Planting Trees (2006, Lin Sheng Xiang, Takashi Hirayasu, Ken Ohtake)
• Growing Up Wild (2009, Lin Sheng Xiang, Ken Ohtake)
• The Land Is My Study (2010, Lin Sheng Xiang, Ken Ohtake, Toru Hayakawa)

• I-Village (published May 2013, Lin Sheng Xiang, Ken Ohtake, Toru Hayakawa, Alex Wu)
• Village Besieged (published May 2016, Lin Sheng Xiang, Ken Ohtake, Toru Hayakawa, Alex Wu, Noriaki Fukushima, Huang Po Yu)
• Village Besieged Live in Concert
• Water Snowflake Goes to Market (Release Concert November 28 & 29, 2020)
• The Night March of the Chrysanthemums 15th Anniversary Concert Live Recording Highlights
• Kafka on the Rivers-and-Lakes (October 8 & 9, 2022)
• I-Village Trilogy Concerts Selected Live Recordings (Recorded National Concert Hall Selections April 16, 2021)

Awards

Other awards

• In 2014, he was shortlisted for the Best Folk Artist of the Year, Best Other Dialect Album of the Year ("I-Village"), and Best Hakka Song of the Year (Yanshu/"I-Village") at the Chinese Golden Melody Awards.
• In August 2017, he won Best Band (Lin Sheng Xiang "Village Besieged") and Best Album Design (Luo Wenzen "Village Besieged") at the 17th Chinese Music Media Music Awards Open Awards with the double CD Village Besieged.

On August 14, 2013, Lin Sheng Xiang, director Ko I-Chen (Mandarin: 柯一正), writer Neil Peng(Mandarin: 馮光遠), environmental lawyer Robin Winkler, writer Nan Fang Shuo, and retired professor emeritus of National Tsing Hua University Ming-Fui-Pang (Mandarin: 彭明輝) launched the "Constitution 133 Practice Alliance" to promote the recall of legislators who are "following Ma and violating public opinion, to show that democracy is not only about elections held once every four years, and recall is not only an empty word written in Article 17 and Article 133 of the Constitution. The Alliance issued a "Statement on Citizen's Recall Campaign", but because the threshold for recalling the president is too high, it will mobilize to recall Ma's legislators from each constituency.

Anecdotes

• In 2007, Lin Shengxiang was awarded the Best Hakka Album and Singer at the Golden Melody Awards.In 2007, Lin Sheng Xiang won the Golden Melody Awards for Best Hakka Album and Singer. However, he refused to accept the two awards based on language, arguing that music awards should be categorized by genre, not by language. This was the first time since the Golden Melody Awards that someone refused to accept the awards, and caused a public debate. The prize money was donated to a Meinong voluntary tree planting team, Meinong's community newspaper, an organic farming magazine, and Yang Rumen (Mandarin: 楊儒門), a rice bomber who advocates for domestic agriculture in Taiwan[28] After 2010, Lin Sheng Xiang no longer applied for the language category of the Golden Melody Awards, and in 2017, the Golden Melody Awards set up a language-neutral Album of the Year award in an attempt to transcend the language barrier.