In this blog, I interviewed my mom and talked about music with her.
My mom used to worked in the college library, but the school was too far from home, so now she is a teacher in a high school library, which only take five minute to drive. My mom loves to do outdoor event, like planting, walking dog, and she is also good at cooking and baking, like beef noodle, curry rice, cookie, and bread.
Below is the interview (👦is me, 👩is my mom)
👦:What is your earliest memory of music?
👩:When I was in high school and college, I used to listen to radio when I went back home or the dorm. I have four sisters and we often listen to radio together. I have a lot of memories with the radio, we used it when typhoon comes because typhoon often caused black out and the only thing we can do is listen to radio.
(this is example of radio at that time from online)
👦:Which musician(s) influenced you the most when you were younger?
👩:Guang-Yu was the most famous radio host in Taiwan, he's also a composer that worked with many famous singer. I used listen to the radio show called "Luminous Family" when I study at night. The show started from 1996 and Guang-Yu is still hosting now. He talks many things like news, interviewing celebrities, history, online KTV that audience can call in to play songs. The most famous part of the show is called "late night encourage," people can call in to say something in 30 seconds to someone that they want to say to encourage them, or share their daily life, no matter they are up or down. This part of the show makes me feel motivated to hear those people's stories.
(this is one of the episode inviting the mayor of Taipei City, 2022.03.28)
👦:What sort of music did people around you listen to?
👩:Chinese love pop songs was the most famous at that time. "Water of Forgetting love" by Andy Lau is the classic. This song released in 1994 and won lots of award. This is one of Andy Lau's representative albums, with sales of more than 3 million copies, making it the highest-selling album.
👦:What's you favorite song? And who is your favorite artist?
👩:I always listen to songs by Wakin "Emil" Chau, he is a singer from Hong-Kong. I love his song called "Friends" so much that I used to listen to it when I drive to work. This song not just talks about love, it also gave me more strength to keep working hard to pursue my dream.
👦:Is there any kind of music you don't like? Why?
👩:I don't really like rap music or heavy metal music. I think it's noisy and it makes my ears hurt, also I can't understand the lyric they singing about. But I do like Michael Jackson when I was young because I like the his fancy dance and the rhythm of his song.
👦:How did music affect people when you were younger?
👩:Music can be a strong power to motivate people when they feel upset. Lyric in the song sometime reflect the reality that some people facing right now. Like a famous singer called "Jolin Tsai" wrote a song about "Not just gays, when you understand yourself and don’t live for others, you can reach out to help those around you," and she sing with a band called "MayDay". The story talks about a 15-year-old student committed suicide on campus because his gender indentity was different than others and his classmate bullied him. This song reaches over 20 millions views.
Harry I always love seeing what your blog is going to look like, you always have the best looking and most organized one in the class. Im glad I got to learn about your mom and her love for music, she seems like an outstanding lady and no wonder you are such a cool person. Keep up the good work my friend, I will keep trying to make my blogs like yours.
ReplyDeleteHey Harry, I really enjoyed reading your blog and seeing how your mother's life was in Taiwan ! I really found interesting the fact that she was listening to the radio with that small device, and that at our era, almost no one from our generation is listening to the radio anymore. Great job !
ReplyDeleteGreat job Chen! I think different cultures and learning about them is very cool, and I think both you and me have bumped in to a lot of different cultures since we moved to the Us from our home countries. I really enjoyed reading about your mother's life and her music experience throughout her life. That radio was also very cool. Great job man!
ReplyDeleteYour mom's memories of listening to the radio with her sisters during typhoons and blackouts are really touching. It shows how music and storytelling brought people together during challenging times. I found her love for Luminous Family the most interesting part of her story. The "late night encourage" segment sounds like a good way for people to connect, share, and find motivation in one another’s experiences. My favorite music choice from her list would be Andy Lau's Water of Forgetting Love. It represents a nostalgic and classic era of Chinese pop.
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