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Listening to the World Locally – The Homecoming Tour of Taiwanese Musicians

Publication date: 20 Aug 2024
Author: Lee Yi-ling, Wang Li-Chiao | Staff member at the Archives of Institute of Taiwan History

Ninety years ago, in August 1934, a group of young Taiwanese musicians embarked on the first Western music concert tour in Taiwan’s history. The Homecoming Concert Tour began with great fanfare during the scorching summer of the South Island, kicking off at the Taipei Medical School Auditorium. With a packed itinerary, the tour traveled southward, stopping at public assembly halls in Hsinchu, Taichung, Changhua, Chiayi, and Tainan, before culminating in a final performance at the Kaohsiung Youth Hall. Despite the demanding schedule, the musicians delivered exquisite piano melodies and harmonies to audiences across Taiwan, sparking widespread acclaim.

This article focuses on Taiwan’s first “Homecoming Concert Tour,” which was rapidly organized in just over a month. The program primarily featured Western musical compositions. During the scorching summer of the South Island, this grand musical feast unfolded with enthusiasm, traveling from north to south with seven performances. It offered audiences across Taiwan an auditory delight, broadened their horizons, and brought Western music closer to the local population. This tour marked the beginning of Taiwan’s musical diversity and led to Taiwan’s music being recognized on the Olympic stage, where Taiwanese music shone brightly on the global scene.

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Online Expo for the Academia Sinica Digital Humanities Research Projects 2025"Art in Everyday Life: Taiyang Art Memories in Newspaper Archives," "Listening to the World Locally: The Homecoming Tour of Taiwanese Musicians" has been Released
2025-10-02

In recent years, the Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica, has been devoted to uncovering historical newspapers and periodicals from Taiwan's Japanese colonial period. This year, the ITH Archives presents an online exhibition, "Art in Everyday Life: Taiyang Art Memories in Newspaper Archives," featuring exclusive collections from The Taiwan Shinminpo and The Taiwan Shinbun, published between 1938 and 1944.

During the Japanese colonial period, Taiwan's modern press not only reported current affairs but also featured vibrant literary and artistic supplements. These pages—covering art, music, and literature—embodied the concept of "Art in Everyday Life." The archives from 1938 to 1944 coincide with the 4th to 10th Taiyang Art Exhibition, offering glimpses of exhibition news, critiques, artworks, and even illustrations created by painters for serialized novels.

Focusing on the Taiyang Art Exhibition, the online show is organized into three sections: "Founding of the Taiyang Art Exhibition," "Taiyang Art Reporting in Newspaper Archives," and "Postwar Revival of the Taiyang Art Exhibition." Through selected newspaper pages, exhibition catalogues, posters, and postcards, visitors are invited to explore the artistic life recorded in historic newspapers.

In addition to the bilingual exhibition "Art in Everyday Life: Taiyang Art Memories in Newspaper Archives(文藝日常:舊時報紙典藏中的臺陽記憶)," an English-language companion exhibition—"Listening to the World Locally: The Homecoming Tour of Taiwanese Musicians(在地方聽見世界-臺灣青年音樂家的鄉土巡演)"—is also now available online, offering audiences a glimpse into Taiwan's artistic and musical vibrancy during the Japanese colonial era.

Online Expo - "Art in Everyday Life: Taiyang Art Memories in Newspaper Archives"

Online Expo - "文藝日常:舊時報紙典藏中的臺陽記憶"

Online Expo - "Listening to the World Locally: The Homecoming Tour of Taiwanese Musicians"

Featured Article - "在地方聽見世界-臺灣青年音樂家的鄉土巡演"


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