Early exposure to Hengchun folk music

Chen Da was born on May 12, 1906, in Kōshun District (modern-day Hengchun), a rural district in southern Taiwan, then under Japanese rule.^[10][11] As a child, he witnessed the repression of anti-colonial protests by the Japanese military in his area which resulted in many victims in 1914. This experience influenced him considerably. In 1917, due to poverty-related problems at home, he was sent away and lived with a married elder sister in the Taitung area, near the east coast, for a time. The eleven-year-old boy went to work in sugarcane plantations of the area, together with his sister's husband. It was then that he began to learn to sing Hengchun ballads. He returned to Hengchun in 1922.

A young street singer

In 1925, Chen Da started to sing Hengchun ballads in public together with his brothers, encouraged by the example of his elder brother who was already a professional folk singer.^[5] His intake used to consist of two or three bowls of boiled rice per day, and some small change. During the Great Depression which affected Japan and her colonies severely (and which also triggered the expansionist urges of Japanese capital and the aggressive course that the government embarked on by invading China), Chen Da's survival as a street singer became even more difficult.

Chen Da suffered a brain stroke in 1934. From then on he could not use his hands and feet properly. His mouth remained slanted, and his eyesight was badly impaired. As a handicapped person, it was almost impossible for him to earn a living in any other way than by singing. His life as a street singer condemned him to extreme poverty.^[12] Such poverty was, however, characteristic of the lives of the common people, most notably rent-paying peasants in rural districts.

The Post-war years

In the aftermath of World War II, Taiwan was handed over to Chinese rule. Chen Da continued his life as a street singer performing in the villages of remote districts of the rural south of Taiwan. It is not known how he reacted to the massacres of 1947 that came to be known as the February 28 Incident, or how he was affected by the subsequent years of White Terror.

As a poor and physically handicapped street singer, Chen Da found it impossible to marry. He lived with a widowed woman from 1946 until 1948, however. After their separation, this woman, surnamed Xie, gave birth to his only son.^[5]

In 1949, Chen Da lived at the east coast, in Taitung County. Here, he found another widow who was willing to live with him. Two years later, in 1951, the couple moved from Fugang Village (Peinan Hsiang, Taitung Hsien) to Hengchun Township.^[5]

In the 1951, Chen Da performed for the first time in a local cultural program. He was joined by another folk singer, Zhang Xi (長惜).^[5] As a duo, they improvised Hengchun folk songs.

Music scholars point out that Chen Da often improvised the lyrics.^[13] This was a common feature of Chinese folk ballad delivery. Various regional versions circulated and interpreters frequently changed the text, reacting both to given situations and the audience. Chen Da would also invent ballads spontaneously. For this reason, he has been referred to as a poet.

While there existed much space for spontaneous variation or fresh creation with respect to the lyrics in Hengchun folk music (恆春民謠 Hengchūn minyao), Chen Da – like other folk singers – used traditional tunes. The delivery of these tunes by the singer and the accompaniment on the yueqin or moon guitar was also marked by improvisation.^[14]

As a singer, Chen Da was a story teller. Improvisation of the stories told by this ballad singer was both a result both of Chen Da's restless life as a wandering bard (thus Helen Rees) and of the fact that he confronted changing audiences and paid attention to the situation that existed while he was facing a specific audience. It reflected his awareness of the events that 'moved' people. But above all, it shows his rootedness in an oral tradition and his illiteracy which made it impossible to refer to and merely reproduce, in a slavishly 'faithful' manner, existing written lyrics.

On the occasion of the traditional Mid-Autumn Festival in 1951, Chen Da was invited for the first time to take part in a ballad singing contest (民謠歌唱比賽). This contest took place at the Fu An Temple (福安宮) in Checheng Village (車城鄉). It was the first folk singing contests held at the Fuan Temple. Since 1951, it has taken place every year.^[15]

For Chen Da, participation in the contest was a small breakthrough. Still, not everyone in South Taiwan respected him. Jen Shangren remarks that in the eyes of some local citizens, he was just a "beggar" performing in the streets, hoping to get a few mao (cents) in order to survive.^[16] Jen Shang-ren also notes, however, that Chen Da "received considerable acclaim from his audience and deeply touched them" when performing.^[17]

The early and mid-1960s

Since 1960 until his death the folk singer lived alone, as the woman he had lived with since 1949 left him in that year.^[5] His domicile remained a simple, straw-thatched "hut at Shawei Road (砂尾路 ) in Hengchun Township" until his death in 1981.

His biography says very little about Chen Da's life as a street singer in the early 1960s. White Terror and KMT rule had initimated large segments of the population since 1947. It chilled the atmosphere on the island and it is hardly possible that this did not have an effect on street performances. Both ways: it made singers and audiences careful and apprehensive, and it must have fanned veiled commentaries by a singer who is known to have commented, in his ballads, on social ills and historical injustice.^[18] This sly resistance, worthy of The Good Soldier Švejk, a proverbial figure invented by the satirical writer Jaroslav Hašek, is even more likely in a social-cultural setting far from the cities, with an audience that consisted almost exclusively of non-Mainlanders who suffered from considerable discrimination under KMT-rule.

'Discovered' in 1967

The White Terror] enacted in the wake of the massacres of 1947 receded somewhat in the second half of the 1960s. But being suspected could still mean death. Between the end of the Pacific War and the late 1960s, a considerable number of citizens were executed. The US Vice Consul in Taipei at the time of the February 28 Incident gives an estimate of 20,000 merely for the massacres in late February, 1947; others put that figure at 30,000. About 140,000 citizens received long prison sentences when suspected of opposition to the dictatorship of Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石).^[19]

The trial and sentencing of the poet Bo Yang in the spring of 1968 shows that there is no reason to talk of a 'liberalization' of the regime in this period. Apparently in retribution for cartoons drawn by him, Bo Yang, who was also a cartoonist and journalist, was imprisoned from March 7, 1968, to April 1, 1977, under extremely harsh conditions in the labor camp on Green Island, Taiwan – a concentration camp for political prisoners since 1947.^[20]

While dissidents were still silenced by severe repression, making it impossible to speak of a softening of the regime's policies, foreign economic historians point out, however, that a 'liberalization' occurred in the economic sphere. One of its consequence was a considerable worsening of the material situation of rural producers, largely due to the decline of the rice price in the late '60s and the '70s. Liberalization in the economic sphere also brought no freedom for workers to strike or organize. Trade unions and strikes remained banned under martial law until 1987.

If the regime itself was not becoming more liberal, politically, and the life of peasants and generally the common people in the rural districts turned from bad too worse while folks in the working class quarters of the large cities suffered from low wages, abysmal pollution, and poor housing conditions, then at least many young middle-class people could escape the repressive situation in Taiwan by studying abroad. Many came back as liberals.

It took two liberal composers trained as ethno-musicologists in the West, Shih Wei-liang (Shi Weiliang史惟亮) and Hsu Tsang-houei, to 'discover' Chen Da in 1967. Liu Ching-chih notes that Hsü Tsang-Houei (a composer and professor who became very involved in folk music research as an ethnomusicologist) had pursued advanced studies in West Germany in the 1960s.^[21] Having returned to Taiwan in 1965, he "set up the Chinese Youth Music Library" in 1966 and started to "collect national music."^[22] Shih Wei-liang was also a "composer, musicologist and professor."^[23]

Thus, the year 1967 became a turning point in Chen Da's life as a folk artist even though he hardly realized this at the time. Chen Da was actually discovered by chance during field work undertaken by Shih and Hsü in South Taiwan. Presenting the more general context that led to Chen Da's discovery, Liu Ching-chih writes that "(i)n 1976, Shih and Hsu Tsang-houei [had] founded the Research Center for Chinese Ethnomusicology, and started a tide of enthusiasm for the collection of folk songs. They systematically collected more than 3,000 songs from the plains and mountains of Taiwan, the largest-scale collection campaign ever carried out in the island. However, lack of funding meant that the work continued for only two years."^[24][25]

The two researchers patterned their field trip according to the paradigm established by the folk music researchers John and Alan Lomax in the 1930s. They had a good sense of quality. When they encountered Chen Da in Hengchun, they were immediately impressed by his style of singing, the tonality, the authenticity of his ballads.

At the time, Chen Da "was already old and half blind, but still able to improvise long ballads telling stories and teaching morals. His simple and straightforward voice and lyrics (we)re deeply moving..."^[26] Chen Da was valued highly as a musician, both due to the emotional expressivity of his singing style, and the honesty his audience as well as most music scholars discovered in his delivery.

As Liu Ching-chih writes, "the important question is whether or not a work of music expresses the true thoughts and emotions of the composer" respectively the creative ballad singer, "or, to put it another way," whether or not he "has made full use of his capacity for musical expression (technique) and moral strength (honesty)." Referring to socially and politically committed music, Liu added, "There are some good examples from the Anti-Japanese War" that showed how such music need not necessarily become cheap and superficial music, thus mere propaganda.^[27]

A folk music craze on Campus leads to Chen Da's first record

The advent of the Campus Folk Song Movement (xiaoyuan minge yundong 校園民歌運動) in Taiwan – that was inspired by the American folk music revival – improved the perception and degree of appreciation of folk music in the early 1970s. The folk music revival in the U.S. had peaked in the second half of the 1960s. Partly due to the presence of American GIs, transferred to Taiwan – from the Vietnam battleground – for R&R (rest and recreation), songs by Bob Dylan and others, but also U.S. rock music arrived in Taiwan and were heard not only in U.S. clubs but also in Taiwanese avant-garde venues like the Scarecrow Coffee House and the Columbia Restaurant (both in Taipei) during the early 1970s.

Commercial labels, radio and television slowly took note, as a small educated public discovered its taste for folk songs – especially American and British folk singers like Bob Dylan, Joan Baez or Judy Collins. Later, as the Campus Folk Song Movement gathered speed, it also led to the emergence of socially and politically committed new Taiwanese respectively Chinese folk music in Taiwan. It thereby created a receptive cultural environment (at least on campus) that made possible the discovery of Chen Da not only by musicologists but by campus youths.

The presence of an urban audience that cared for foreign folk music encouraged Prof. Shih (史惟亮) and Hsu (許常惠) to contact a record company, on behalf of Chen Da, although without his knowledge. In 1971, they were able to invite the old folk singer to Taipei. The music critic Yatin Lin later on commented that "Shih Wei-liang (史惟亮) and Hsu Chang-hui (許常惠) ... brought him to the capital city of Taipei to record albums to preserve this 'dying' singing style."^[28] In 1971, one album featuring Chen Da was recorded. It was entitled "A Folk Musician: Chen Da and his Ballads."^[29]

The song from this album that became most widely known is the long ballad Sixiang qi (Thoughts Arising).^[30] As Shen Shiao-Ying noted, "the song 'Ssu Hsiang Ch'i' (Sixiang qi)" is "an old Taiwan ballad made popular by Chen Ta (Chen Da)."^[31] Shen Shiao-Ying adds that the ballad is heard at the beginning and in the final sequence of a popular Chinese film entitled Farewell China (1990).

According to the music director of the film, Mr. Shen Sheng-te, "the song expressed an all-encompassing Chineseness."^[32] In Shen Shiao-Ying's opinion, it also "expresses lament toward the tragic state of Chinese people who have left their homeland."^[33]

The interpretation offered by Shen Shiao-Ying reflects the sadness expressed by the ballad and by Chen Da's particular rendition. Shen Sheng-te's reading of the ballad accentuates Chen Da's attachment to the Chinese motherland and his longing for reunification. The latter sentiment was later on also expressed by another ballad Chen Da sung that remembered, in an allusive way, the massacres in the wake of February 28, 1947. Sadness has been a recurrent characteristic of Chen Da's songs, but so has been their penchant to "remember."^[34]

Chen Da's "encounter" with a regime "interested" in him

The media and certain scholars have claimed that the early 1970s brought a certain relaxation of the repressive policies that the K.M.T. continued to enact until the lifting of martin law in 1987. In 1972, Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國), the eldest son of Chiang Kai-shek, became prime minister in Taiwan. Perhaps Chiang Ching-kuo (who had a noteworthy record already, as head of the secret police) read the signs of the time when he began, as prime minister, to make modest overtures directed at those citizens who had been discriminated and intimidated in the past. Political parties that could function as opposition parties remained forbidden and trade unions remained outlawed. But now soap operas using the Taiwanese dialect (spoken by the vast majority of the islanders) appeared on television.

In September 1973, in the context of a policy that aimed to coopt native Taiwanese citizens, a group of about one hundred senior citizens from South Taiwan were invited by a Christian Welfare Association close to the KMT to take part in a bus tour to Taipei. The folk singer Chen Da was among those selected for the tour, perhaps in view of the fact that he was by now moderately well known in Northern Taiwan.

The members of the group were guests of a so-called welcome party organized by the mayor of Taipei that was also attended by a high-ranking aide of Premier Chiang Ching-kuo for P.R. reasons. Subsequently, the KMT-controlled press reported that Chen Da "praised and thanked the government" and that he was "profoundly impressed" by Premier Chiang, cherishing the photo of the premier that he had received and keeping it as a precious memory. Under the existing conditions, Chen Da had hardly any choice but to show himself "impressed."^[35]

Chen Da's real position towards the KMT became apparent when Premier Chiang came to Hengchun later on, in the context of one of his public relation tours. The premier sought to see the folk singer, apparently hoping to win sympathies among native speakers of Taiwanese. Chen Da avoided him, however, by hiding somewhere. Later on, he claimed diplomatically that he was 'sad' that he had missed the chance to meet Chiang Ching-kuo.^[35]

The follow-up to this reveals a lot about both the regime and the singer. Feeling (or fearing) negative consequences, Chen attempted subsequently to see the premier in Taipei. As he approached the presidential palace and tried to enter, he was arrested by the military police, described as 'deluded' and locked away for a brief period in a psychiatric hospital. "In the hospital, he fiddled with his old yueqin" and began to sing – while improvising the lyrics, as he would usually do: "(...) '... how can my destiny be so sad, subject to such treatment...! I am no psychopath.'(...)"^[35] For those who reported these words, they were merely proof of delusion or the approaching dementia of an old and ill-educated man. For others, they document the way his creativity as a singer-songwriter worked. He would seize the moment, and was always inspired by what moved him, emotionally and intellectually.

The folk singer Chen Da – a symbolic figure since 1976 or 1977

The Final Year

Chen Da is known to have derived a sense of satisfaction from singing and playing the yueqin (or moon guitar) in front of other people. He knew that he had something to say and wanted to say it. But he also would play his instrument and sing all by himself. Even though he was an old man – an illiterate person from a poor peasant family in the South Taiwanese countryside, and yet a poet, as several scholars have emphasized –, he must have understood the situation that Taiwan faced when a policy that had brought limited though reluctant "tolerance" of opposition was reversed in Dec. 1979. In 1980, Chen Da had traveled a lot and taken part in quite a few campus-based folk concerts. There had been an echo. But the performances had also produced a lot of stress and fatigue. Returning to Hengchun from these tours, he seems to have felt at a loss what to do.

A biographer speculates that perhaps his energy was waning in his last few months. Some observers have suggested a certain aimlessness. They claim that, in the last year of his life, he was often seen wandering in the streets.^[50] It is unclear whether he had ceased to perform in the final days of his life. Some journalists close to KMT-newspapers have even claimed after his death that he was increasingly deluded in the last few years of his life. This is unlikely, in view of his many important concerts in 1980. If it is not a purposeful denunciation, perhaps they misread symptoms of loneliness and fatigue.

On April 11, 1981, carrying his yueqin with him as usual, Chen Da was trying to cross a road in his hometown, Hengchun. All of a sudden, progress – or should one say, modernization? – hit him, in the form of a speeding tourist bus. The old folk singer died on the way to the hospital, at age 76.^[51]

Chen Da

• Chen Da 陳達, "A Folk Musician: Chen Da and his Ballads" 民族樂手《陳達和他的歌》Minzu yue shou 'Chen Da he ta de ge' (also translated as "Folk musician - Chen Ta and his songs"), ed. by Prof. Shih (Shi Weiliang). Recorded 1971. - Released June 1, 1977, according to one source. (See: ).
• Chen Da 陳達, "Chen Da -Hengchun ballads《陳達與恆春調說唱》Chen Da yu Hengchun diao shuochang / Heng-ch'un tiao shuo ch'ang." Sanchong City,Taiwan (Firstophone / Di yi chang pian chang you xian gongsi) 1979. -This is part 1 of: "A special album of Chinese folk music" 中國民俗音樂專輯 Zhongguo minsu yinyue zhuanji, edited by Prof.Hsu(Tsang-heuei Hsu / Changhui Xu 許常惠 ). Sanchong Shi,Taiwan (Firstophone Di yi chang pian chang you xian gongsi) 1979-1982. 15 sound discs : 33 1/3 rpm, stereo, 12 in. / Music LPs : Folk music.
• Chen Da 陳達， "Thoughts Arising: Chen Da Sings. 思想起：陳達自彈自唱 Sixiang qi: Chen Da zi dan zi chang." Taipei: (Taiwan Commercial Press台灣商務印書館 Taiwan shangwu yin shuguan ) 1998. Music compact disc.
• Chen Da 陳達, . "Si xiang qi: music from the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre's ballet Legacy." 思想起 雲門舞集《薪傳》舞劇音樂. Sixiang qi yunmen wu ji "xin chuan (Xin zhuan)" wuju yinyue. Taipei / Taibei Shi (Taiwan shangwu yin shuguan 臺灣商務印書館 Taiwan Commercial Press) 1999. (1 sound disc (10 min.): Compact disc. Issued with "Tai-wan hou lai hao so tsai".) Ch’en Ta, vocal and yueqin (moon guitar) accompaniment.
• Chen Da 陳達, "Songs of a Mountain Town" 山城小唱 Shancheng xiao chang (Fulao Folk Songs in Taiwan Island). Taipei 台北 (Wind Records / Wind Music International Corporation / 風潮唱片 Fengchao changpian / Fengchao yinyue guoji gufen youxian gongsi) 2000. Music compact disc. 1 sound disc : digital ; 4 3/4 in. + 1 pamphlet (35 pp., illustr., 13 x 14 cm.) Producer: 吳榮順 Wu Rongshun --(陳達，2000，山城小唱/陳達珍貴錄音夢幻再現。台北：風潮唱片，音樂) - Recorded in 1961-1967 in Hengchun and Pingtung.
• Chen Da 陳達，"Chen Da 陳達, Hengchun ballads 陳達與恆春調說唱 Chen Da yu Hengchun diao shuochang / Heng-ch'un tiao shuo ch'ang." Ed. by Prof. Hsu ( Xu Changhuì 許常惠). Taipei 台北 ( First Audio 第一影音 Di yi yingyin) 2000. Compact disc。
• Chen Da 陳達 ，"Chinese [music] 198. : Tape no. II.2, Chern Dar and his songs complete set." Hong Kong (Chinese University of Hong Kong University Library System, Publisher) 2008. 1 sound disc (ca. 36 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. - Reproduced copy from Pian Collection open reel (7 in.). Recordings from other unknown commercial recordings.

Chen Da with others

• "A special album of Chinese folk music" 中國民俗音樂專輯 Zhongguo minsu yinyue zhuanji, edited by Prof. Hsu (Tsang-heuei Hsu / Changhui Xu 許常惠 ). Sanchong Shi,Taiwan (Firstophone Di yi chang pian chang you xian gongsi) 1979-1982. 15 sound discs : 33 1/3 rpm, stereo, 12 in. / Music LPs : Folk music. (Part 1. Ch'en Ta yü Heng-ch'un tiao shuo ch'ang = Ch'en Ta and Heng-ch'un tune minstrelsy; Part 2. Ch'en Kuan-hua yü Fu-lao hsi yin yüeh = Ch'en Kuan-hua and Fo-lao folk music; Part 3. T'ai-wan shan pao ti yin yüeh: A-mei tsu min ko = music of Taiwan aborigines: The folk songs of the Ami; Part 4. T'ai-wan shan pao ti yin yüeh: Pi-nan tsu yü Ya-mei tsu min ko = The music of Taiwan aborigines: Folk songs of the Puyuma and the Yami; Part 5. Su-chou t'an-tz'u = Suchow minstrelsy ; Part 6-7. Chang T'ien-yü ti min su ch'ü i (1-2) = The Chinese folk minstrelsy of Chang T'ien-yü (1-2) ; Part 8. T'ai-wan ti Nan kuan yin yüeh = The music of Nan-kuan: a southern school; Part 9. T'ai-wan shan pao ti yin yüeh: A-mei, Pi-nan = The music of Taiwan aborigines: The Ami, The Puyuma; Part 10. T'ai-wan shan pao ti yin yüeh: Pu-nung, Shao, Lu-k'ai, Ta'i-ya = The music of Taiwan aborigines: The Bunun, the Thao, the Rukai, the Atayal; Part 11. T'ai-wan shan pao ti yin yüeh: Ts'ao, P'ai-wan, Sai-hsia, Ya-mei, P'ing-p'u = The music of Taiwan aborigines: The Tsou, the Paiwan, the Saisiyat, the Yami, the plain aborigines; Part 12. Miao-li Ch'en Ch'ing-sung pan ti K'o-chia Pa-yin = The Hakka Pa-yin music of Miao-li Ch'en ensemble; Part 13. Chang-hua Li-ch'un-yüan ti Pei-kuan yin yüeh = The Pei-kuan music of Chang-hua Li-ch'un-yuan; Part 14. Ch'en Pi-hsia ti K'o-chia min yao = The Hakka folk songs by Lai Pi-hsia; Part 15. Hsiang-kang Tung-shan Ch'ao chü t'uan ti Ch'ao-chou hsi = The Ch'au-chou stage music of Hong Koong Tung-shan Ch'au-chou stage troupe.)
• "A special album of Chinese folk music" 中國民俗音樂專輯 Zhongguo minsu yinyue zhuanji / Zhonghua min su yi shu ji jin hui; Min su yinyue yan jiu zhong xin., edited by Prof. Hsu (Tsang-heuei Hsu / Changhui Xu 許常惠 ). Taipei / Taibei Xian Sanchong Shi (Firstophone / Di yi chang pian chang you xian gongsi) 198-? . Musical cassettes : Cassette recordings : Folk music : Chinese: 20 sound cassettes : analog, stereo. – (1. Chen Da and Hengchun Tune Minstrelsy—2. Chen Guanhua and Fu-lao Folk music—3-4. The Music of Taiwan aborigines—5. Suchoin Tanci (Suchow Minstrelsy) -- 6-7. The Chinese folk minstrelsy of Chang Tianyu—8. The music of Nan'guan (A Southern school) -- 9-11. The Music of Taiwan aborigines—12. The Kakka Bayin (8 instruments) music of Miaoli Zhen Ensemble—13. The Beiguan music of Changhua Lichunyuan—14. The Hakka folks songs by Lai Bishia—15-16. The Chaozhou stage music of Hong Kong Dongshan Chaozhou stage troupe—17. Drum & dance theater. Early stage of Kua Theater—18. Middle stage of Taiwan Kua Theater, "The maid kept his umbrella"—19. Tayal songs & saisets' songs—20. Hakka's theater of "tea-picking.")
• (Chen Da 陳達 et al.), "Chinese folk music," Vol. 1-3. 中國民間音樂. Zhongguo minjian yinyue, edited by Prof. Hsu (Tsang-heuei Hsu / Changhui Xu 許常惠 ). With Guan-Hua Chen (Chén Guānhuá 陳冠華.); Chen Ta (Chen Da 陳達,); P'i-hsia Lai (Lai Bishia賴碧霞,); Zh.Yang (Yang Jinchi 楊錦池.); Cheng Song-fu (程松甫): Ma Yuan-liang (馬元亮); Gu Zhen-sheng (顧振聲.); Fong-song Liu (Liu Fengsong劉鳳松); Fong-t'ai Liu (Liu Fengdai. 劉鳳岱.); Ch'ing-song Chen (Chen Qingsong 陳慶松 ); Ch'ang-hu Hsu (Xu Changhu 許常惠). Taipei (Shuping shumu chuban she chuban 書評書目出版社出版) Book Reviews & Bibliographies Publisher) 19--? (3 sound discs : analog, 33 1/3 rpm, stereo; 12 in.) - Program notes in containers in Chinese and English.
• (Chen Da 陳達 et al.), "Hometown Songs · Songs about rivers and lakes" 故鄉的歌・走唱江湖Guxiang de ge, zou chang jianghu. Taipei / Taibei Shi (Rolling Stones Audio Publishing Limited / Gunshi yousheng chuban she youxian gongsi 滾石有聲出版社有限公司 ) 1992. - Singers: Chen Da, 1st work: Si xiang qi (11:38); Chen Guanhua, 2nd work; Chen Xueli and Lin Qiuxue, 3rd work; and Cai Zhennan, 4th-8th works.
• Chen Da陳達 et al., (Mixed recordings of traditional Chinese folk songs, workman's songs and Buddhist chants). Hong Kong (Chinese University of Hong Kong University Library System, Publisher) 2008. 1 sound disc (ca. 10 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. - Recordings from other unknown radio broadcasts/commercial recordings. Reproduced copy from Rulan Chao Pian Open Reel Collection (5 in.) - Live recording. - Contains: "Pole carriers -- Work bound --Work songs -- Solo boatman's song --Mixed work songs --Buddhist chants" (by Chen Dar and Ju Dagang).
• Chen Da陳達 et al., Singing Instrumental processional [music] ; Buddhist chants ; Wedding processional (music). Hong Kong (Chinese University of Hong Kong University Library System, publisher) 2008. 1 sound disc (ca. 10 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. - Recordings from other unknown radio broadcasts/commercial recordings. Reproduced copy from Pian Collection open reel (5 in.) - Contains: Buddhist chants—Wedding music—Song sung in unknown Chinese dialect by Chen Da—Ju [ju] da gang.
• Chen Da陳達 et al. "Vocal styles." Hong Kong (Chinese University of Hong Kong University Library System, publisher) 2008. 1 sound disc (ca. 11 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. - Recordings from other unknown radio broadcasts/commercial recordings and live performances. Reproduced copy from Pian Collection open reel (5 in.). Contains: 1. Chen Da's ritual song (sung in unknown Chinese dialect) -- 2. A Buddhist chant—3. A ballad opera selection.
• Ab(h) Bing 阿炳, and Chern Dar (Chen Da陳達), "Chinese 198. Tape IV.4, Ab(h) Bing and Chern Dar" (Chen Da陳達), Hong Kong (Chinese University of Hong Kong University Library System, publ.) 2008. 1 sound disc (ca. 6 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. - Reproduced copy from Pian Collection open reel (5 in.). -Recordings from other unknown radio broadcasts/commercial recordings. Recordings of musical performance (san xian and yue qin) performed by Ah Bing (Abing) ; with unknown Chinese song sung by Chern Dar (Chen Da).
• "Chen Da Sings Buddhist Chants; (with) Du Shiniang." 陳達 佛曲 ; 杜十娘. Chen Da Fo qu ; Du Shiniang. Hong Kong (Chinese University of Hong Kong University Library System, Publisher) 2008. - 1 sound disc (ca. 12 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. - Reproduced copy from Pian Collection open reel (5 in.). Recordings of live performance. (Zhao Rulan, i.e. Rulan Chao Pian personal recording collection)
• Xi He 西河 (da gu大鼓 = drums); Chen Da陳達 (ge qu 歌曲= sings)] etc., "Xi He [dàgǔ] Chen Da [gequ]. Kuai Shu. Yueju. 西河[大鼓] 陳達[歌曲]. 快書. 越劇.." Hong Kong (Chinese University of Hong Kong University Library System, publisher) 2008. 1 sound disc (ca. 10 min.) : digital ; 4 3/4 in. - Recordings from other unknown radio broadcasts/ OR commercial recordings. Reproduced copy from Rulan Chao Pian Open Reel Collection (5 in.)

Hengchun folk songs, other Taiwanese folk songs

• Shang-Jen Chien (Jian Shangren), "Voices of eternal spring : A study of the Heng-chhun tiau song family and other folk songs of the Heng-chhun area, Taiwan." Pingtung (Pingtung County Government) 2010. (Orig.: Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Sheffield, Dept. of Music, 2009). Book, with CDs. 381 pp. : ill. ; 30 cm. + 2 sound discs (digital; 4 3/4 in.) - Accompanying compact discs (!!!) contain recordings of folk song excerpts.
• "Hengchun folk ballads" 恆春民謡 Hengchun minyao. By X.Zhang (Zhang Xinchuan 張薪傳., B. Zhang (Zhang Bilan. 張碧蘭.), D. Zhu (Zhu Dingshun 朱丁順)., W. Zhang (Zhang Wenjie 張文傑), Y. Chen (Chen Ying 陳英.), Xiuquan Xu (Xu Xiuquan 許秀全.). Pingtung (Pingtung County Government屛東縣政府 Pingdong xian zhengfu) 199-?. Music CD, 1 sound disc (74 min.): Digital, stereo; 4 3/3 in., lyrics in Chinese (1 folded sheet) inserted in container. --Sung in Southern Min dialects. Performer(s): Zhang Xinchuan (1st-2nd works), Zhang Bilan (3rd work), Zhu Dingshun (4th-5th works), Zhang Wenjie (6th, 9th works), Kending guo xiao min yao ban (7th-8th works), Chen Ying (10th work), Zhang Wenjie, Xu Xiuquan, Chen Ying (11th work). Contents: 1. Sixiang zhi (6'00") - 2. Si ji chun (3'45") - 3. Niu mu ban (7'14") - 4. Si gui chun (4'36") - 5. Niu mu ban (5'50") - 6. Sixiang zhi (5'16") - 7. Si xiang zhi (3'19") - 8. Pingpu diao (3'12") - 9. Wu kong xiao diao (14'46") - 10. Si gui xiang (8'57 ") - 11. Niu mu ban (12'59").
• "June Jasmine: Taiwan Folksongs." By Yousheng Lin (conductor); Shanghai ai yue yue tuan Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra. Hong Kong (Naxos Digital Services Ltd.) 2004. Audio CD. (Contents: June jasmine - Flower in the rainy night - Peach blossom village - Hengchun folksong - Song of mount - Penny song - Jilted song - If the gong sounds - Spring dream by the riverside - Bleakness in the heart - Peach blossom crossing the river - Four red seasons.)
• Takaaki Masu (ed.), "Folk music from Japan, the Ryukyus, Formosa, and Korea." Collectors' series; Columbia world library of folk and primitive music, vol. 11.(Sung and played by native musicians.) - Collected and edited by Genjirō Masu (pseud.).] - Notes and texts on Japan prepared by Otome Daniels, RP Dore, and CJ Dunn; on Ryukyus, by FJ Daniels; and on Korea, by Zong in Sob. Table of contents keyed to map on album cover. Romanized texts with English translations included in notes bound in album. Contents: Sado o-kesa—Esashi oiwake—Otemoyan—Tai-ryō-bushi—Tsugaru yama-uta—Yagi-bushi—Matsuri hayashi—Kuroda-bushi—Kiyari bushi—Dodoitsu—Kappore—Mogami-gawa-funa-uta—Chakkiri-bushi—Mo-ashibi—Ashibi komocha—U-gusuku-guena—Kariushi—Hya-odori—Basinuturi-bushi—Ts'ai-ch'a-ku—Welcoming the bride—Smasalom—Marasitomal—Pisila-railas—Sabrisal—Wan kan tzai—Miruyan araran—Sushim-ka—Taki taryon—Kyon fun-taryon—Sonju-pri—Chun-taryon.