Last evening, amid a heavy shower, I came to the National Concert Hall to "enjoy" a symphony in memory of Jiang Wenye, an eminent musician from Taiwan. I have told you before that I am, technically speaking, ignorant about music, and I am not an artsy guy either. But why did I brave the storm to attend a concert? (Because a former colleague of my wife’s contracted COVID, and so she gave away the tickets to us at the last minute.)

Besides waving his baton, the conductor introduced to the audience the biography of Jiang and his works throughout the concert. But due to the poor audio effect and my light hearing disability, I barely understood what the conductor was saying. I am not sure that I have heard of Jiang before. So, in the intermission, I searched for him online on Wiki and Baidu.

He was born in Danshui in 1910 and acquired his musical basics in Japan. Before 1938, prior to his first visit to Beijing (then occupied by Jap), Jiang got all of his musical training from Japan, the typical western style. Since then, he has added elements of classical Chinese music to his works. In 1945, when WWII ended, Jiang went back to Taiwan. However, in 1949, he chose to live on the Chinese mainland, where he remained until his death in 1983. During his long stay in Beijing, he constantly reinterpreted his works in Chinese style, wrote books regarding Chinese traditional music, and taught music in colleges. Because of his association with the Japanese during the Resistance Against the Japanese War, he also faced adversity during the anti-rightism and Cultural Revolution movements.After 1978, his fame was restored. Obviously, he has not returned to Taiwan since 1949.

I cannot appreciate his music, but I do admire his legendary life.