Li Shuang-ze’s ‘Coca-Cola Bottle’ Incident
李雙澤的「可樂瓶事件」
Source: Tamkang Incident
From: Tamsui Wiki
Date: September 12, 2015Author: Multiple contributors
On December 3, 1976 (the 65th year of the Republic), at a Western folk and pop music concert held at Tamkang College of Arts and Sciences (now Tamkang University), Li Shuang-ze stood up and called out, “We should be singing our own songs.” The next day, a heated debate broke out in Taiwan’s arts and literary circles over “Chinese modern folk songs,” with lively discussion in several subsequent issues of the Tamkang Weekly — an event that came to be known in history as the “Tamkang Incident.” According to legend, Li Shuang-ze held up a Coca-Cola bottle on stage and challenged the MC and audience: “In America, I drink Coca-Cola and sing American songs. In the Philippines, I drink Coca-Cola and sing American songs. Now we’re in Taiwan, and we still drink Coca-Cola and sing American songs — why aren’t we singing our own songs?” (Though according to the recollections of Tao Hsiao-ching, who was present, Li did not “smash the Coke bottle” as the legend has it.) Amid rising jeers, he picked up his guitar and began performing Taiwanese folk songs — Szu-hsiang-chi, Heng-chun Melody, Pu Po Wang, and Song in Memory of the Father of the Nation. While the “folk song movement” did not begin with Li Shuang-ze, it was through his provocative act and the ensuing debate that “singing our own songs” was truly ignited as a youth awakening social movement.
Editorial in the Tamkang Weekly, December 13, 1976, responding to the commotion sparked by Li Shuang-ze.
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External Links
- That Coke Bottle of 1967 (Underground Nostalgia Blues)
- He Smashed a Coke Bottle 30 Years Ago and Ignited the Folk Song Fire (China Times)
- Li Shuang-ze (Wikipedia)
- Elegance, Odes, and the Amateur Spirit of Art — An Overview of Taiwan Campus Folk Songs (Li Wan)