A series of activities commemorating Lee Shuan-ze, a Taiwanese folk music activist, thirty years after his death were kicked off by the unveiling ceremony of the monument erected on the Shepard’s Meadow in the name of him on October 1. During the ceremony, Dr. Flora Chang, TKU president, and Dr. Tseng Hsieng-cheng, the president of the National Hsin Chu University of Education cum the chief organizer of the commemoration event sang one of Lee’s songs, “My dad’s kites” to show their respect to the former TKU student. The words engraved on the monument that resembles a guitar say that “Sing your own songs and let your voice heard here!” According to Dr. Chang, this monument should be a testimony of Tamkang commitment to upholding innovative and free spirit. For the spirit to glow brightly on campus, she added, there will be colorful flowers and plants to cup the monument and floodlight shone on it at night. It will become a major attraction for visitors and a place to relax for students. Dr. Cheng, similarly, would like this monument as a token for freedom of self-expression in Taiwan.

A memorial concert was held three days later (October 4) at the Student Activity Center, where Lee allegedly started the movement of “Singing one’s own songs” in 1976. The concert was hosted by Tao Shao-ching and Ma Shih-fang, two experienced radio DJs. Veteran and young folk music singers in the past 30 years in Taiwan were invited to sing Lee’s songs so as to pay tribute to him. The singers, representative of each decade of the last 30 years, were summoned to gather under one roof this evening symbolizing a continuation of the 2significant movement instigated by Lee. One singer, Hu De-fu, an aboriginal singer of Lee’s generation, recounted sentimentally to the audience that thanks to Lee who reminded him to sing his own songs, which in his case, were the music of his tribe, he started to and continue to compose music that is uniquely his and his people’s. The other singer, Lei Kuang-sha, a lecturer at TKU, remarked good-humoredly that he was old before being hot. As he was supposed to represent the middle decade of singers in the past thirty years instead of the most recent decade, he made fun of his advanced age despite not having made a name for himself yet. Singers from the most recent decade were represented by all the musicians in the Guitar Student Club of TKU. One of them, Lu Kuang-chung sang a song called “The beauty of morning” which was joined by the entire audience making it one of highlights of the evening. Yang Chao-tung, the chair of the club promised the audience that they would hold future concerts by Lee’s monument safeguarding the endurance of his spirit. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )