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Founder of HanGuang – Ms. Ju-Fang Song

 

Profile on the founder

Some children grow up hoping to become a teacher or a doctor. But that is not the case for Ms. Ju-Fang Song, chairperson of HanGuang Foundation. One day, when she was on her way home, her scooter stopped in front of a red light, and then a thought came across her mind. She wanted to let everyone like Chinese culture. Like the principle of attraction described in the book ‘Secret,’ that flash of thought was pulling her to accomplishing something monumental in the future. In 2003, she founded HanGuang Education Foundation with objectives to revive Chinese characters, promote Chinese literature, and revamp Chinese art through countless promotional charity events.
Ms. Ju-Fang Song said, ‘Chinese culture is profound. It is not only the foundation of up-bringing for Chinese people, but also the force that propels world civilization forward. Therefore, we ought to promote Chinese culture and make it shine. That’s the reason we name the foundation ‘HanGuang,’ which carries a literal meaning of ‘Light of the Great Chinese Culture.’

Interview Q&A

On January 12, 2015, the founder of HanGuang Vocal Band came to Yu-Tsai for an interview to accommodate our class schedule. She was very down-to-earth, and she checked repeatedly throughout the interview to make sure we understood her answers. Principal Pan also joined our interview, and he filled-in questions to help us out, giving us his warmest support.The interview concluded smoothly, and we learned the importance and precious value of Chinese culture from Ms. Ju-Fang Song.

 

How do you see HanGuang Vocal Band?


HanGuang Vocal Band is founded and funded by a group of people who are on a mission to promote classical poetries. They gathered a group a young people who are interested in singing and formed a band that has administrative and operational support. We hope it can promote classical poetry and be self-funded. Therefore, we recruited people who are able to read music scores, and we assigned professional or internationally-known teachers to guide and train the group.


 

Besides combining classical poetry with a cappella, Ms. Song has other great ideas.


Personally, I like traditional Chinese music a lot. However, the sound of traditional Chinese music that grew up with me disappeared with the passing of time. That was a pity. I met Ms. Ku-Fang Lin, who was the head of Taipei Lecture Hall, during 2003 and 2004. At that time, she had a band called ‘Wang Le Hsiao Chi’ and I thought about different ways to help the band like funding it through the foundation, filming its performances as instructional videos for other teachers to use, or broadcasting its performances on television. Since this was out of my league, I did not know where to start. Later on, we came across Chinese crosstalk and composition, which were something that we could work with.


 

Why did you combine classical poetries with a cappella?


I found that singing is the easiest way to learn. We may not be able to memorize many of the poems, but we are able to sing quite a few songs. When I taught Three Character Classic to my son, he would catch only the sound of the last character every time I finished reading him a verse. Then I fused Three Character Classic with a nursery song that he was familiar with. After only a few attempts, he was able to get the words right. Through my own experience, I believe singing is able to accomplish many goals if used properly. Singing is indeed an excellent activity.


 

Bits and pieces of founding HanGuang


People are hard to manage. During this period of time, whenever I see them singing, they seem really into the songs. I was touched when I saw the expressions of their faces. Their happiness would resonate within me, and I would dance along because I enjoy listening to songs with classical poetry. This happiness is absolute and pure. For example, there is a song named ‘A spray of flowers (Not giving in to old age)- coda’. It is rearranged based on a popular verse from the Yuan Dynasty. This song is modern with a jazzy flavor to it. The way that this popular Yuan verse is sung by a group makes me happy. Therefore, I will continue our work regardless of the obstacles.


 

The future of HanGuang and your expectations


In the future, members of HanGuang must know the founding reason for the band and strengthen mutual understanding between band members. This will make us not only progress more smoothly, but also treat our work with more enthusiasm. Our song will then touch the hearts of more people. On the other hand, we need to think and make adjustments about raising our level of understanding on the essence of the poems, improving on the quality of our singing, and other means to raise our overall standard.
Finally, I would like to tell our band members that the footprints that we leave behind will reflect on the amount of effort that we put in. Regardless of what the future might say about us, as long as we give our best now, we will be rewarded by leaving a beautiful set of footprints for the future to see.


 

Words of encouragement for children


I am all for singing. I love singing myself, and I am also in a choir. I only learned about a cappella after joining the choir, and I was impressed by how explosive human voice can be. A cappella is more popular than choir and more artistic than pop songs. So I believe learning a cappella is more approachable by the public.
I would like to promote classical poetries to children. In my generation, classical poetry was weighted quite heavily in our learning. However, children nowadays are not able to understand and use them in their composition. I hope through HanGuang Vocal Band, we are able to bring classical poetries into the lives of children and help them appreciate classical poetries.


Afterthoughts

 

Jessica:

HanGuang’s founder Ms. Song came to our school for an interview. We learned a lot about the economics and other related matters about HanGuang. She told us about HanGuang’s founding mission, which is to promote Chinese culture, and how important and valuable Chinese culture is. I will definitely cherish it. She also explained about ‘New Darling Old Lover,’ and I thought it was very useful to us. Take me for example, I’ve already fallen in love with HanGuang’s songs! I want to thank HanGuang's founder for giving us such a valuable a lesson.


 

Cherry:

When I was interviewing the founder, she answered all the questions in detail, leaving me with no doubts in my mind. Her answers were also precise and therefore, it was easy for me to sort out my interview. Our teacher wanted everyone to ask the founder one question. As I was too shy, I didn’t ask her a question. From this interview, I found out that the founder is responsible for bearing heavy workloads. However, she is still deeply devoted, consistent, and firm in her work. It would be nice if more people in Taiwan are willing to promote Chinese Culture. This prevents the erosion of our culture and the children of our future generations can continue to learn about it.

Source: the Beautiful Voices │ Pictures: the Beautiful Voices