http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q313/valetinekimo/JUNKMagazine2007-1.jpg 原稿在此 以下是報導內容 ----------------------------------------- JUNK Magazine 05, 2007 Report by Jolyn Songs From The Underground Meet Taiwan’s Big Hip Hop Hope, Kou Chou Ching. The Beastie Boys. Jay-Z. Kanye West. DMX. And closer to home, we've got Too Phat. Little would you expect that there's an outfit that's been shaking the underground hip-hop scene in Taiwan. Kou Chou Ching has been making waves in their home country by giving hip-hop music a twist by infusing classical Taiwanese music into their work since 2003. “We had the idea of using traditional Taiwanese music for a long time. It started as an experiment to make our music different from Western hip-hop, but we found out that the music has similarities in some parts and decided to fuse both elements of western hip-hop and classic music together. In that sense, Western hip-hop uses 'sampling' from funk and jazz from the past, and this is what we are doing-we sample music from the 1930s and 1940s and hope that they become hits again,” rapper Fan Chiang says. In a country where hip-hop isn't a big genre and still in its infant stages, Kou Chou Ching is adamant about using their music to get youths interested in traditional Taiwanese music again. “We learn hip-hop from the west but we still want to put more Taiwanese elements into our music. And we hope that people will understand that the fusion of western music and traditional music isn't conflicting, but something sparkling” Fan Chiang adds. While Kou Chou Ching are only relatively known in Taiwan, the internet has been helping the band spread its music to listeners that they otherwise might not have reached to through websites like myspace. From hearing from foreign online media who want to write about the band and podcast listeners who feature Kou Chou Ching's tunes, these guys agree that the internet is an excellent tool for them to learn about the music industry and get to know lots of musicians. And yes, in Kou Chou Ching's case, music does transcend all cultures barriers. “We had a Middle Eastern listener who had used his podcast to introduce our music and when I heard him saying our name and the title of our songs in his language, it was interesting!” How does one relate to a band who raps in Mandarin, Taiwanese and Hakka? Sure, the guys rap about social issues that's currently happening in their home country in their mother tongue, but the topics aren't far from what people everywhere understand-surely, everyone has been subject to some sort of discrimination at one point in their lives. They guys are determined to do more with their music than just entertain. “We don't want our music to be just about dancing, but we want to educate people with our music. There are social problems in Taiwan which we shouldn't escape from. Let's face them and try to educate the people.” And that's exactly what you get if you understand Kou Chou Ching's lyrics. The song featured in the Junk CD takes on the issue of graffiti and public arts in Taiwan. Fan Chiang says, “graffiti is illegal in most countries so these days more and more graffiti artists are forced to put their designs on t-shirts so that their art is worth something. On the other hand, our government seems to be tearing down old buildings to make way for expensive 'cultural installations' on the streets, but the meaning of these so-called art pieces are lost on most people. So we want people to think of what is the right value for art, and want the government to pay more attention to building laws for graffiti and not let graffiti just be pop products on shirts.” The future seems be bright for this rap outfit who knows what they want out of their music. Their 2005 debut album Fu-Ke made waves in the Taiwanese hip-hop scene, but Kou Chou Ching aren't contented yet. “I'll let you in on a secret.” Fan Chiang says. “We have plans to release a double CD album in the future, but I can't tell you more. There will be over 30 tracks in the album.” So all you hip-hop fans, here's something to look forward to sometime in the near future: an album that will redefine hip-hop music in the region. -- 只是想發揚台灣文化 http://www.kou.com.tw [拷秋勤] --

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