- Author： Zhan Min-Xiu
- Title of Thesis： Study of Wu Zhao-Hong’s (A Mei) New Eight-Sound Band and Other Hakka Eight-Sound Artistry
- Degree： Master's
- Research affiliation： Graduate School of Musicology, National College of Arts
- Year thesis completed： 2000
- Keywords： Liu Dui(Six Villages) Hakka, Eight-Sound
Zhan’s thesis starts from an overview description of the Eight-Sound activities in the Liu Dui (Six Village) area and gradually follows through to explain Wu A-Mei’s education background, training experiences, formation of the New Eight-Sound Band, and its operational mode, development, and transformation. The most unique feature of Zhan’s thesis is her organization and recording of thirty Hakka Eight-Sound verses, which presents an integral view of Hakka Eight-Sound Music. In addition, Zhan compared her on-site sound recording to Master Wu A-Mei’s inherited gongchepu (a traditional Chinese musical notation) to explore and establish Wu A-Mei’s Suona style, techniques, variations, and additions. Moreover, Zhan’s thesis also includes her recordings of the relationships between Eight-Sound music and rituals/ceremonies of worships and customs, through physical participation and observation of various events such as wedding ceremonies, ancestry worships, temple festivals, and burial rituals.
There have been three schools – the traditionalists, adaptationists, and creationists, to the study of Hakka Culture’s unique features. Zhan, as a refined recorder of Hakka folk art of music, indeed has been a significant contributor to Hakka culture, especially for the cultures in the Liu Dui (Six Village) area. Worth mentioning is that since Mr. Zheng Rong-Xing’s study on Musician - Chen Qing-Song in the Miao-li area, the study of Hakka Eight-Sound music in the academics has been continued for twenty years. In this period, researchers, Zheng Rong-Xing, You Ting-Ting, Lin Yi-Wen, and Zhan Min-Xiu, have complied very refined field reports detailing Hakka Eight-Sound music in Tao-yuan and Miao-li of Northern Taiwn and Mei-nong of southern villages. Theses of these researchers discuss Taiwan Hakka Eight-Sound from dimensions of history, theories, performances, and social/culture. Results of these studies indicate that Hakka Eight-Sound has a direct line of heritage in the history of Chinese Music, and its musical structure is based on solid theories. Individual performers, with their rich performing experiences, often have new discoveries in techniques. In social culture, Hakka Eight-Sound is still an inseparable part of Hakka’s life rituals and ceremonies, and its importance is tightly connected to their economies, clans, and cultures. In another word, we can see all theories of the traditionalists, creationists, and adaptationists from Hakka Eight-Sound music. This is also to say that Hakka Eight-Sound music is indeed the best study materials for understanding the development of Hakka culture(s).
References
Zhan Min-Xiu
2000 Wu Zhao-Hong’s (A Mei) New Eight-Sound Band and Other Hakka Eight-Sound Artistry, Graduate Thesis, School of Musicology, National College of Arts.
Lin Yi-Wen
1999 Mei-nong’s Hakka Eight-Sound Music and Traditional Rituals, Graduate Thesis, Graduate School of Music, National Taiwan Normal University.
You Ting-Ting
1996 Study of Tao-Yuan Area Hakka Eight-Sound Music – with focus on the Music culture, Graduate Thesis, Graduate School of Traditional Arts, National college of Arts.
Zheng Rong-Xing
1985 Study of Hakka Eight-Sound, Graduate Thesis, Graduate School of Music, National Taiwan Normal University