The competition final of the 23rd Jin Shao Music Contest was held on the 6th May. This year, Jin Shao glory went to TKU 3rd year Department of Japanese student, Yan Jing-hsuan, and 3rd year Department of Information and Communication student, Lin Yi-chi. Their song “Yet” earned them first place in the ‘singer / composer’ category, as well as awards for ‘Best Musical Arrangement’ and ‘Best Lyrics’.

This year, despite broadening the scope of the music contest to allow for entrants from other universities, the vast majority of awards were nonetheless claimed by Tamkang students.

Jing-hsuan explains that she wrote the song “Yet” after seeing news footage that portrayed the aftermath of the recent Japan earthquake. At the time, she had felt deep sorrow for the plight of those affected, and had turned her sorrow into lyrics. In the category of group vocal, first place went to National Taiwan University’s Hsieh Tsung-ling and Lu Yi, for their creative rendition of the Zhao Chuan classic “I am a little bird”.

The Jin Shao Music Contest has a long history that spans almost two and a half decades. Each year, it attracts numerous talented music celebrities, like TKU alumnus Crowd Lu, who this year returned to watch the competition: “I haven’t been back in ages! I’ve come back to check out the upcoming talent.”