Interview _ Mrs. Chen Ying

Mrs. Chen lived on Der Her Road. Furnishing is simple in her house. The closet in living room was filled with more than 20 trophies and medals she won in all kind of folk song singing contests in her early age. Mrs. Chen is about 70 years old. she lives with her two sons. When we arrived, she was taking care of her 2- years-old grand daughter. Mr. Wu Wei Der and Mr. Guo, a reporter from Liberty Daily News, were already there too, just before us.

After Mr. Guo, who heard about our work and wanted to make some report, took picture and made a brief interview on us, Mrs. Chen started to play ‘Thinking Of', 'Pingpu Tune', ‘Four Season Spring', and ‘Five Hole Tune' for us. The sounds of Yueqin and Mrs. Chen's singing were so beautiful. Mrs. Chen said that she had a sore throat because of cold and did not sing very well. But what we heard were still so beautiful.

Then Mrs. Chen took out eight Yueqins to let us try. She said, ‘These are sponsored by Hengchun Agriculture Association, I use them in teaching young students at my home on every Monday.'

Besides, she also taught the folk song party in Hengchun High School, and some adults including teachers from Chia Yung Elementary School once every week on the second floor of Chun Chern Bookshop.

Mrs. Chen told us how she learned Hengchun folk songs. She said, ‘the easiest folk songs are “Thinking Of” and “Pingpu Tune”t I learned “Thinking Of” and “The Ox's Tail” when I was about 15 or 16 years old. Because I had to work on the field with the adults at that time, I hum and sang after the adults and so I learned to sing them. They were women who sang the folk songs mostly, because of the tone. Some men could sing too. Chen Da was a representative at the early time. In 1980's, under the aggressive movement of our mayor Mr. Dai Kun Lin, all kinds of contests on Hengchun folk songs took placed, and people began to pay attention on them. Mr.Chang Xing-Chuan and Mr.Chang Uern Jei were my teachers. I learned playing Yueqin and then won prizes at many contests.

Recently, Public Television Service of Taiwan made a serial report on the 130 th anniversary of the building of Hengchun city. One of them was Mrs.Chen's singing. She said on this, ‘For the need of association performance, the songs that schools teach are written down in fixed notes, it's no longer “alive”. Only few people know the true tunes of Hengchun folk songs. If my singing could be recorded, it should be very helpful in the inheritance of them. So I was very glad to join that performance.

Finally, Mrs. Chen addressed a quite different point of view from others about the inheritance of Hengchun folk song. She said: “We should focus on the adults, not young students. Young students tend to leave home for their advanced education or career after they grow up. The chance is very rare that they play Yueqin and sing Hengchun folk songs again. 10 years ago, Mr. Chang Xing Chuan and Mr. Chang Uern Yi had many students, but only very few of them are still playing and singing now. Make the inheritance depends on young students is very unreliable. If we focus on interested adults, and use the resources of community to promote, then we may have a better result after all.'

In our interview, Mrs. Chen told us repeatedly that the lyrics of Hengchun folk song she sings are all made by herself. She will make different lyrics when she is at different situations. The lyrics are in 7 words 4 sentences form, speaking about praise and thanks, all rhymed. This is really not easy for a person who did not accept formal education like Mrs. Chen!