Taiwan honors diverse languages at yearly music awards.

TAIPEI Celebrates Linguistic Diversity at Golden Melody Awards

The Golden Melody Awards, one of the most prestigious entertainment events in the Chinese-speaking world, took place in Taiwan on Saturday. The awards not only celebrated Mandopop, but also recognized artists singing in Taiwanese, Hakka, and indigenous languages. This is a visible sign of the government’s efforts to promote linguistic diversity and support languages other than Mandarin.

While Mandarin remains Taiwan’s main language of education and government, the country strongly encourages and supports the use of other languages. In contrast, in China, only Mandarin is promoted despite constitutional protections for minority tongues.

At the Golden Melody Awards, veteran star Julia Peng won the best singer in Hakka category, despite never recording an album in the language before. Enno Cheng, who does not speak Taiwanese, won the best female singer in Taiwanese and best Taiwanese album. Peng, upon receiving the prize, expressed her belief that there should be no language restrictions on singing.

In the indigenous language category, Kasiwa and Matzka, Paiwan singers, rapped and sang in their native tongue. Kasiwa received the prestigious jury award.

Taiwan’s music scene, despite its small population of 23 million people, has a significant influence in the Chinese-speaking world due to its creativity unhindered by censorship.

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen praised the love of music at the awards show for “eliminating language boundaries between different ethnic groups.” She emphasized that people from various linguistic backgrounds, including Taiwanese, Hakka, indigenous languages, Mandarin, English, and Japanese, can all freely sing and come together.

Ouyang Fei Fei, a disco queen and one of the special contribution award winners, gained fame in Japan in the 1970s by singing in Japanese. At the awards, she expressed her determination to continue singing and never give up on her dream.

(Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by William Mallard)

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