Along with Culture Minister Lee Yung-te (李永得) and Kaohsiung’s Commissioner of the Hakka Affairs Commission Yang Jui-hsia (楊瑞霞), Hakka Affairs Council (HAC) Deputy Minister Fan Tso-ming (范佐銘) attended the bayin guru’s funeral in Kaohsiung City on Jan. 16, presenting the HAC certificate in recognition of Chung’s lifelong dedication to Hakka traditional music.
Culture Minister Lee said, although master Chung has passed away, people will always remember that he devoted his whole life to the preservation of Taiwan’s Hakka bayin music. Lee promised that Chung will be given the presidential citation in recognition of his lifetime dedication to Hakka traditional performing arts.
Born in 1936 in Meinong, Chung started his performing career at the age of 17. He was always present on ceremonial occasions in his hometown, be it a worship ceremony or a wedding banquet. Chung founded the Meinong Hakka Bayin Music Troupe in 2006, persisting in passing down the cultural heritage by performing in Hakka people’s festivities and ritual passages in life as well as teaching bayin music at Fu-an Elementary (福安國小). All Hakka bayin music scores in Meinong are well recorded and preserved by Chung, who made a significant contribution to the world of Hakka traditional music. Chung was recognized by the Ministry of Culture in 2016 as the preserver of Hakka bayin music, a kind of the important traditional performing arts in Taiwan.
In the traditional classification of musical instruments, bayin (literal translation: eight notes) refers to the eight materials used to make instruments, namely metal, stone, string, bamboo, fruit shell, earthenware, animal hide and wood. It gradually became synonymous with conventional Hakka music which is usually performed in religious ceremonies (deity and ancestor worshipping), guest greeting, and wedding and funeral banquets in agricultural Hakka settlements.