Draft:Ying Chen

Ying Chen (1933—) was born in Hengchun Town of Pingtung County, Taiwan, and is a folk artist. In 2020, she was recognized by the Ministry of Culture as an important preserver of the traditional performing arts “Folk Songs From Hengchun.”[1]

Ying Chen was born in Hengchun Peninsula in 1933. When she was a child, she learned about Folk Songs From Hengchun after seeing her father’s friend, Da Chen, use Yueqin to perform major events in Hengchun.[2] When Ying Chen was older, she went to the mountains with adults to harvest sisal hemp to earn money for the family. She would often sing folk songs with her colleagues as a way to relieve work stress.[3]

After Ying Chen was married at the age of nineteen, she stopped singing for a while in order to earn money for her family.[4] After her family life stabilized, she resumed singing and participated in folk singing competitions. In 1968, she won the local temple folk singing championship for the first time. She began to compete in various places to accumulate more singing experience.[5]

After Ying Chen turned 60, she successively learned Yueqin from the senior folk singers Tien-Chueh Hsu, Hsin-Chuan Chang, and Cheung Man Kit. Hsin-Chuan Chang taught Ying Chen that learning Yueqin should adhere to the traditional method: Yueqin should be learned attentively and carefully, and it is unsuitable to use modern notation methods to learn it.[6][7] Ying Chen is proficient in the songs “Thoughts Arising,” “Pingpu Tune,” “Five Hole Minor,” “Ox Tail Accompaniment,” “Four Season Spring,” “Fenggang Minor,” and others.

She is most famous for performing “Thoughts Arising” and “Four Season Spring.” Like her first Yueqin instructor, Da Chen, Ying Chen also uses “Thoughts Arising” and “Four Season Spring” as the music to sing the short narrative song “The Tragic Story of A Yuan and A Fa.”[8]

  1. ^ 國家文化資產網. "陳英".
  2. ^ 葉晉嘉、張簡珈晏、賴佑庭. "陳英". 屏東縣國家文化記憶庫:南國憶閾. Archived from the original on 2023-06-30. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
  3. ^ "2021台灣音樂年鑑". taiwanmusicyearbook.ncfta.gov.tw. Archived from the original on 2023-07-04. Retrieved 2023-07-04.
  4. ^ 許裕苗、陳東瑤、周大慶, 許裕苗、陳東瑤、周大慶 (2008). 《風之頌:亙古不朽的恆春半島民謠》. p. 78. ISBN 9789860160819.
  5. ^ "「恆春民謠」的傳唱與變遷──以恆春古城地區內的活動為例__臺灣博碩士論文知識加值系統". ndltd.ncl.edu.tw. Archived from the original on 2023-06-30. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
  6. ^ 自由時報電子報. "【藝術文化】唱民謠的女人 - 自由藝文網". 自由時報電子報. Archived from the original on 2023-06-30. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
  7. ^ 遠見天下文化出版股份有限公司 (2017-08-01). "陳英:恆春民謠活字典 致力創作教唱 | 遠見雜誌". 遠見雜誌 - 前進的動力 (in Chinese). Archived from the original on 2023-06-30. Retrieved 2023-06-30.
  8. ^ "藝湛登峯:110年重要傳統藝術暨文化資產保存技術保存者授證專輯[軟精裝]". 博客來. Archived from the original on 2023-04-17. Retrieved 2023-04-13.