*
Homepage

 

06/02 (Tue)

Opening Hours 9:00-17:00
*
*
Listening to the World Locally – The Homecoming Tour of Taiwanese Musicians
Listening to the World Locally – The Homecoming Tour of Taiwanese Musicians

Publication date: 20 Aug 2024
Author: Lee Yi-ling, Wang Li-Chiao | Staff member at the Archives of Institute of Taiwan History

Ninety years ago, in August 1934, a group of young Taiwanese musicians embarked on the first Western music concert tour in Taiwan’s history. The Homecoming Concert Tour began with great fanfare during the scorching summer of the South Island, kicking off at the Taipei Medical School Auditorium. With a packed itinerary, the tour traveled southward, stopping at public assembly halls in Hsinchu, Taichung, Changhua, Chiayi, and Tainan, before culminating in a final performance at the Kaohsiung Youth Hall. Despite the demanding schedule, the musicians delivered exquisite piano melodies and harmonies to audiences across Taiwan, sparking widespread acclaim.

This article focuses on Taiwan’s first “Homecoming Concert Tour,” which was rapidly organized in just over a month. The program primarily featured Western musical compositions. During the scorching summer of the South Island, this grand musical feast unfolded with enthusiasm, traveling from north to south with seven performances. It offered audiences across Taiwan an auditory delight, broadened their horizons, and brought Western music closer to the local population. This tour marked the beginning of Taiwan’s musical diversity and led to Taiwan’s music being recognized on the Olympic stage, where Taiwanese music shone brightly on the global scene.

*
The series of Taiwan Commercial Letters of Tai-yi-hou Papers has released
2017-09-04

Tai-yi-hou Papers of Nagasaki were the documents created and preserved by the Chen family from Kinmen. Chen family had a long history in running business in Nagasaki and these documents recorded their trading business and social activities that they participated from the 1880s to the 1940s when Chen Rui-chun (1840-1908), Chen Shi-wang (1869-1940) and Chen Jin-zhong (1890-1974) were in charge. The Papers contain a huge amount of business letters and historical materials related to Chen’s enterprise operation, family activities, and overseas Chinese affairs. It is definitely the first-hand historical source to research the trade development in modern East Asia and overseas Chinese affairs.

The Institute of Taiwan History and Mr. Chen Dong-hua, the offspring of the Chen family, had signed the agreement to digitalize the Tai-yi-hou Papers in 2012. We acquired the archives five times from April, 2014 to June, 2017 and transported more than 50,000 original items from Japan to Taiwan, including correspondences, account books, code books, receipts, contracts, publications, seals, relics, etc. Based on types and purposes, the Tai-yi-hou Papers are categorized into commercial letters, operational documents, family collections, and the documents of Fujian Guildhall and overseas Chinese affairs. Since the quantity of Tai-yi-hou Papers is enormous and therefore the compiling procedure is time consuming, the archives will open in stages.

Now, the series of Taiwan Commercial Letters is open online. There are approximately 17,000 commercial letters and over 50,000 digital images. All letters are first organized based on which business stores they were from and then classified on the basis of where the business stores located.

The commercial letters are categorized on the basis of different business stores so that readers can easily access letters from each business store. In addition, envelopes, paper, and stamp marks that different business stores used are helpful for readers to understand the history and the operating situation of these different stores as well as their business interactions with Tai-yi-hou. Moreover, “Biography and History” and “Related Material” contain the information about the historical development and the connections between different stores. These letters show the development of different regions and record important historical events so as to present the various features of commercial activities in Taiwan in the 20th century.

Taiwan Commercial Letters, the second series of Tai-yi-hou Papers of Nagasaki, has released now. We welcome the public to access Taiwan Archival Information System and retrieve the materials.

Figure：The letter sent from Taipei Qian-yuan Pharmacy on October 8, 1931.
Identifier：T1001_02_07_052.


11F., South Wing, Building for Humanities and Social Sciences, 128, Sec. 2, Academia Rd., Nangang Dist., Taipei City 11529,
Taiwan Tel: +886-2-2652-5181 Fax: +886-2-2652-5184 【Contact us】
Copyright © 2010 Institute of Taiwan History, Academia Sinica. All Rights Reserved