Chinese name: 鄧雨賢台灣音樂紀念館
Located at: Taoyuan County (Northern Taiwan)
Year of Establishment: 2018
Address: No. 680, Zhongxing Road, Longtan District, Taoyuan City
Part of the Longtan Branch of the Taoyuan Public Library (桃園市立圖書館龍潭分館), the Teng Yu-hsien Music Memorial Hall is the first fully digital and Taiwanese music-themed library in Taiwan.
Opened in 2018, in addition to being a music memorial hall featuring the creations of Taiwanese composer Teng Yu-hsien (鄧雨賢, 1906-1944), holding a collection of Taiwanese music, and showcasing local characteristics, the hall also has an outdoor green landscape that is ecologically friendly, making it a new cultural and leisure landmark that combines reading and music. The hall is mainly divided into two buildings, A and B, which are the library and the exhibition center. It is the largest branch of the Taoyuan Public Library.
(Photo: Civil Affairs Office of Longtan District)
The old Longtan Branch was built in 1979. Due to the building being old and insufficient, it was rebuilt to provide citizens with a better reading space. The new branch pavilion conforms to the topography of the hillside. The main reading space is located at a high point, allowing library patrons to get a view overlooking the lush greenery outside. The building exterior also integrates the natural environment and the tea garden in the back. The gray sloping roof corresponds to the undulating green landscape. As for the internal space, it is set up as the Taiwanese Music Memorial Hall, which holds a collection of important Taiwanese musical works of the same period, making the hall a cultural base for reading and music.
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The Teng Yu-hsien Music Memorial Hall is connected to Building A of the Longtan Branch. The exhibition area combines multiple multimedia technologies and interactive AR installations, displaying more than 300 vinyl records of Taiwanese folk songs from the 1930s. At the “Classic Popular Digital Video Wall,” visitors only need to touch the album covers on the video wall to read about and play the songs in the albums. Even the unique "ticks and pops" you hear when playing vinyl records have been perfectly restored.
The interactive game "Mashup Experiment" in the hall uses projection technology. Rhythmic sounds can be produced by simply tapping on pictures on the wall of Teng Yu-hsien's commonly used musical instruments. In addition, when scanning the QR Code on the wall, visitors can get an introduction of each instrument. Through multimedia interaction, visitors can take the time machine back in time to experience the beauty of the period in the 1930s when Taiwan's music industry was just budding, and relive memories of those days.
Teng Yu-hsien was a talented Hakka musician and a national cultural treasure. He is regarded as the "Father of Taiwanese Ballads." From the 1920s to 1930s, the era when Taiwanese music began to sprout, social consciousness was rising and Taiwanese music started to become mainstream. Popular music began to appeal to people’s personality and sense of emotional freedom. These songs not only resisted the shackles of feudal culture, but also became the first mark of Taiwanese ballads. That is why Teng Yu-hsien was an important music composer at that time.
Although Teng Yu-hsien is a Hakka, most of his songs are written in the Minnan or Hokkien dialect. He has played a big part in the history of music development in Taiwan. Nowadays, he is well-known for songs such as “Bāng Chhun Hong (Longing for the Spring Breeze),” “Ú Iā Hoe (Rainy Night Flower),” “Go̍at Iā Chhiû (Moon Night Sorrow),” and “Su Kui Hong (Red Four Seasons ).” These works are now digitally reproduced in the hall, in the hopes that they can let the public understand the unique gentleness and strength of Taiwan’s local music.