LOCAL LEGEND:Ni Chung-hwa, who is known as the ‘godfather of Taiwanese rock,’ said that he wants to connect the nation’s music industry with the rest of the world

Taipei Times
Date: Feb 15, 2016
By: Sean Lin / Staff Reporter

Despite a short and controversy-ridden term, former Taipei Department of

Cultural Affairs commissioner Ni Chung-hwa’s (倪重華) legacy for Taiwanese popular music has remained intact.

Ni’s influence on Taiwanese popular music should not be underestimated. Formerly an MTV Taiwan general manager and head of a local record label, Ni is responsible for discovering influential musicians, such as Wu Bai (伍佰) and Hoklo — commonly known as Taiwanese — rock pioneer Lim Giong (林強), leaving a permanent mark on the Taiwanese music scene.

Shortly before Ni stepped down as Taipei’s cultural head and became a special project manager at the Taipei City Government, the Taipei Times caught up with Ni to discuss some of he highlights of Taiwanese pop music and the department’s plans to market local popular music worldwide via the government-backed Taipei Pop Music Center.

Asked how he met Wu Bai, Ni took a long pause, as though delving deep into his memories.

“I learned about Wu Bai in the early 1990s from a compilation album featuring various artists. There was a song by him called Big Building (樓仔厝), which was quite good. Later on, I took Lim to a small music festival at National Taiwan University Stadium, where I saw him [Wu Bai] singing and playing the guitar. He was really heavy and his looks were somewhat tacky back then,” Ni said.     [FULL  STORY]