The Legendary Hsing-Lih Chou – Songs from The Yearning to The Glorious Era

Dr. Hsing-Lih Chou, Folk Singer and Composer (周興立)

The “Campus Folk Song” is an important genre of music from Taiwan, rooted in student songs composed and performed on the campuses of Taiwanese universities during the 1970s. These songs were created by youth wishing to assert their own distinct cultural identities and “Sing our
own songs” (Chinese: 唱自己的歌). This new cultural movement immediately spread across Chinese speaking areas, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, mainland China, and Chinese communities all over the world.
Dr. Hsing-Lih Chou is not only one of the pioneers of this movement, he is also responsible for a contemporary revival of the genre. In the late 1990s, when other composers gradually switched to other genres of popular songs, Dr. Chou continued to work in the original style of the Campus Folk Song, creating a remarkable legacy. He is recognized internationally as a leading Taiwanese dialect and Chinese folk singer, and has performed at many prestigious theatres and festivals including Flushing Town Hall, Queens Museum, The Rubin Museum of Art, Upstate New York Mohonk Festival, Connecticut Beechwood Art Festival, Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in New York City and Taipei City Metropolitan Concert Hall in Taiwan. A strong advocate of community service, Dr. Chou has received many important awards. He is the Executive Director of New York Institute of Culture and the Arts; a frequent lecturer, teaching artist, and advisor at Flushing Town Hall; and curator for concerts and art exhibitions at many other institutions.
We have been fortunate at Glow Community Center to have the opportunity to host Dr. Chou’s revival of the genre here in the U.S. His performances of some of his popular folk songs, alongside those of his contemporaries, have enthralled and educated a whole new generation, reaching new listeners among both Chinese-speaking and American audiences.