About the Program
What new forms of Hakka music might emerge when the spirit of traditional Hakka mountain songs meets contemporary instrumentation and cross-cultural collaboration?
ZiXuan & Slow Train invites music lovers to explore the melodies and essence of Hakka mountain songs through singing, playing, and creating together. By reimagining these traditions through contemporary musical expression and collective creation, participants will discover new possibilities for Hakka music today. Together, learn to shape a sound that belongs to this generation while creating space for people from diverse cultural backgrounds to listen to one another and compose a new musical landscape.
ZiXuan & Slow Train have received four Golden Melody and Golden Bell Awards, becoming one of Taiwan’s most recognized voices in contemporary mother-language music. Growing up in a multilingual family shaped by both Hakka and Taiwanese cultural influences, ZiXuan’s songwriting is deeply rooted in everyday life, local identity, and the emotional ties between people and the places they come from. Performing in Hakka, Taiwanese, and Mandarin, his music captures the struggles of urban life, the feeling of returning home, and the quiet emotions carried by ordinary people.
Beyond music, ZiXuan is also known for his work in community-based cultural revitalization. In recent years, he returned to his hometown of Hsinchu and transformed a space inside the historic Dongmen Market into “Dongmen REC&LIVE,” a hub for live music, recording, and creative exchange. Since 2020, he has also led Old Town Party, a grassroots arts and music initiative that brings musicians, artists, and creators from Taiwan and abroad into Hsinchu’s old town district. In a city internationally known for its technology industry, ZiXuan continues to use music and cultural action to reconnect people with local stories, neighbourhood spaces, and the evolving cultural life of the city.
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TAIWANfest Vancouver is grateful to be held on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam Indian Band), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish Nation), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh Nation). We acknowledge our privilege to be gathered here, and commit to work with and be respectful to the Indigenous peoples of this land while we engage in meaningful conversations of culture and reconciliation.