For my final reflection, I considered one of two options: discussing my internship experience abroad or singing karaoke. As you may have guessed from the title of this post, I chose the latter option. I spent my last night in Taiwan singing karaoke with my teacher and classmates, and I have written my last reflection for the Global Engagement Minor on how karaoke is, in many ways, a culmination of all the valuable things I’ve learned on my journey.
It is hard to escape karaoke in Taiwan. You can walk down the street on a random Tuesday afternoon and stroll past a receptionist sitting at their desk getting some live rehearsal in. Karaoke bars are everywhere and a very common group activity for a night out with professional colleagues or close friends. As someone who loves a good karaoke night, my interest in participation bloomed soon after arriving.
I never went during my first semester because none of my spring friends were interested, but soon into the summer, I was invited by a group of international students to join for a night out at KTV (the leading karaoke bar). While the experience was quite fun, I was woefully unprepared. Unlike my previous karaoke experiences, the bar we went to had only a set list of songs, of which only two were in English (both Elton John songs, strangely enough). I waited a bit to put my name down on the list and listened to singer after singer choose Mando-pop songs I had never heard before.
I am not blessed with the voice of an angel, and thus, my normal Karaoke strategy is to choose a song that other people will know and sing along to. It is safe to say that this strategy did not pan out this time. I got on stage, struggled my way through “Daniel” to a confused audience, and quickly departed to my seat. While I had a good time, when I left that night, I vowed to be more prepared for my next performance.
I asked my Taiwanese roommate if they had any recommendations for popular Taiwanese bands the next day. She responded with two viable options– Jay Chou, the most famous figure in the Mando-pop scene, and Amazing Show, a more modern Taiwanese rock band popular with her friends. After a quick listen to both artists, I decided to go the Amazing Show route for their catchy choruses and loud guitars. Specifically, I chose the song “捲菸”, which loosely translates to “Roll Cigarettes” in English.
In a truly Rocky-esque training montage, I wrote out and translated the lyrics to the song as part of my preparation for the next time I took the stage. A simplified breakdown of the song is that the singer feels the girl he loves has left him because he is of a lower social standing, embodied by his habit of smoking cigarettes. For the chorus of the song, the singer loudly proclaims that he wishes she hadn’t left but will never forget where he came from and likewise will never quit smoking.
Feeling like I had discovered a new viewpoint I hadn’t yet encountered in Taiwan, I translated the lyrics for some of their other songs. It turns out that many of their most popular songs are based on the idea that the girl they like doesn’t feel the same because the guy is too poor or in too low of a societal position ( or both). Considering that my roommate had recommended this band as one of the most popular among college students and music’s position as an expression for some of society’s more unfiltered opinions, I spent the rest of the summer listening to and breaking down the songs of popular and recent bands.
While many songs fell into the stereotypical pop song categories of love, longing, and celebration, the objects of these feelings were markedly different from their American counterparts. Topics included outcries against the pressures placed on young students, rejecting conservative work culture in favor of indulgence, and the classism above felt by people living outside of Taipei.
The next (and last) time I performed karaoke in Taiwan was my final night before returning to America. One friend and I got our teacher and other classmates together for a final celebration at KTV. In addition to being a great time and lasting memory, I chose to sing a few songs I had come to love over the summer, including “捲菸.” When it was my turn to sing, a bunch of people in a separate group, as well as my teacher, joined in for the chorus, clearly big fans of the song. As I left for the airport early the following day, I considered all the relationships I had built and how comfortable I had become in a country that felt so foreign when I first arrived.
