Arranged and recorded by Michael Webster for Bruce Yonemoto’s multi-channel video installation The First Karaoke: ENKA! (2015). Enka—short for enzetsu no uta (oratorical song)—originated in 1880s Meiji-era Japan as anti-government protest songs set to music. By the postwar period, Enka had devolved into sentimental pop ballads. Yonemoto’s project revives the original political purpose, enlisting artists in Taiwan and Japan to write new, politically engaged lyrics set to traditional Enka melodies.
Betty Apple
Huang Dawang
Yu Cheng-Ta
Dan
Exhibitions
- 2019 — Art Basel Hong Kong (Chi-Wen Gallery)
- 2017 — Doizaki Gallery, Japanese American Cultural & Community Center, Los Angeles
- 2017 — Chi-Wen Gallery, Taipei
- 2015 — “An Asian Survey,” Hong-Gah Museum, Taipei
Press
- “The First Karaoke: Enka!”, ArtReview Asia, Summer 2017
- “In the Fantastic Shadow of Hollywood”, Taipei Times, October 2015