"There are too many goddesses, when ordinary people are still more special" Interview with "ordinary goddesses" A Bang: Like forty years old, continue to walk forward with question marks

"The women of Paiwan are all praised
Anyone who sees them will say they are like lilies, moons, colorful insects, and rainbows
Lilies, describe their nobility
The moon, describing them as radiating maternal warmth
Colorful insects, describe their beauty" - "vavayan Paiwan Girl"

In 2016, Abang released the native language album "vavayan. Woman", which combines ancient ballads with funk hip-hop, sings the story of the women of Paiwan with 11 songs.

Picture | eleven audio-visuals

In 2022, Abang turned into a writer again and launched a new book" "Ari Goes Forward with Question Marks". From the story of her mother and grandmother, how the female power of the tribe was passed on to her. Now that she is forty years old, the more she lives, the more comfortable she is, what kind of mood does she look at life?

Images | provided by Lianjing Publishing

The east row of three voices, recording grandma's wedding blessings

"The very relaxed and humorous, very chilled part of me is inherited from my mother's family." Talking about his mother and grandmother, Ah Bang said that invisibly, there was a line connecting them.

Grandma is a very kind, but also very funny person, not very good at winning or losing with others, always open to communicate with everyone, so everyone likes to be close to her. "When my grandmother was sick, my daughter-in-law would come to see her even if she divorced her son."

Grandma is the lead singer of the tribal ancient tune, and often sings the blessing of the ancient tune at the wedding of her children and grandchildren. A few years before my grandmother's death, I was worried that I would not be able to wait to sing the ancient song at Ah Bang's wedding, "I decided to record her chanting, take the recording engineer home, and record my grandmother's voice." 」

Picture | Ah Bang with his aunt and mother. Source: A burst Facebook

At that time, my grandmother, many songs have no strength to sing, Ah Bang found a family, tribal partners, and everyone sang grandma's songs together.

On the day of the recording, Ah Bang asked the little aunt who came together, are you happy today? The little aunt said happy, but the tears suddenly fell:

"I regret that I didn't study with her before, and when she knew that Xiaowen (Ah Bang Xiaoming) wanted to help her record, she had already written the song she was going to sing in the book." 」 "This is her wish, and it has fulfilled her dream."

In a side-recorded video of an album, Grandma dances while looking for a beat, and the music is sung to her with her whole body, as long as it sways and swings, the music will flow out naturally.

These songs, later became "East Row Three Voice Generations", open the album you will hear "Engagement Song", "Intermission Song", "Wedding End Song", from the beginning of the wedding to the end.

The loud and long song seems to unfold in front of us, and Grandma's blessings to her children and grandchildren will no longer fade away because of her death, and can be passed on forever and forever.

The image | the album cover of "East Row Three Voice Generations"

Learn the mother's tongue and embrace the mother tongue and mother

From the "East Row Three Voice Generation" to open the record of native music, Ah Bang began to pestering his mother to learn his mother's mother's language.

The scene of Ah Bang learning his mother tongue is often like this:

As mom sang, she wrote the lyrics: "Slow down, I'm going to write pinch!" I don't have time to listen!"

She stopped from time to time and asked her mother, "Is this word a very pitiful word?" "It's about nostalgia for the past!" It's like learning the language of teeth and teeth when I was a child, learning my native language bit by bit.

Ah Bang's mother also has a beautiful voice, in the past, she has run all over the stage, as a wedding singer, she began to integrate ancient tunes with R&B, hip hop, A Bang's diversified music creation, which must have been inherited from her mother.

Image| A bang Facebook

When Ah Bang was in junior high school, he was once asked, what do you say about the Paiwan language from one to ten? She was stunned on the spot and found that she did not know.

This was also the opportunity for her to invite her mother to write lyrics when she later wrote Kinakaian Mother's Tongue:

"I've had a wish in my heart for a long time
I want the two of us to be together forever
Three sweet potatoes are just enough to eat
If you have four taro, it's too full
Give birth to five powerful children
Hit six prey with enough bravery
Seven Abai cakes are divided and they eat without quarrelling
Eight buckets to give them will not be exposed to the sun
Nine pieces of clothing were worn warmly for them
Ten more grandchildren, I am too happy" —— 〈1-10〉

The mother smuggled her expectations in the lyrics, the children are safe, the children are full of children, simple.

The blessing was given to the child, and later the mother herself suffered from lymphoma, but did not dare to let the children know. It was so hot in Kaohsiung that she wore long sleeves to cover her swollen arms.

It wasn't until she couldn't even take a bath by herself, when Ah Bang helped her wash, that she found that her body was already swollen under the clothes. "While washing, we both cried." Ah Bang remembered the picture deeply.

Ah Bang's mother struggled very hard to fight the disease, and lasted eight years at the end of the cancer.

On the day her mother was leaving, Ah Bang and her family had a premonition, and she told her mother: "It's hard, we've all grown up, if the time is almost the same, you can leave with confidence."

Mom seemed to let go of her heart, let go of her brow, and walked away gently.

Until now, Ah Bang still feels the strength left by her grandmother and mother in her. She was glad that before they passed away, she recorded their songs, their figures, and those daily chats, as if they were still with her and never left.

The picture | A bang Facebook

Self-proclaimed common goddess, I like the forty-year-old me

Ah Bang learned from his mother and grandmother that women's beauty is very diverse, and it flows with time: "For example, in my grandmother's time, their definition of beautiful girls was "very good at work, peeling peanuts very fast", or "the sound of ventilation when singing is very small, and it will not be heard!" 」 The aesthetic way is quaint and lovely.

In recent years, because of her native music, Ah Bang has gone overseas from Taiwan, and some people have begun to call her "Paiwan Goddess", or even "Original Empress". Ah Bang couldn't stand it and decided to call herself an ordinary goddess!

"I think goddesses are really boring, there are too many goddesses now, and it's more special to be ordinary people!" 」 "Why should we be gods, and if everyone goes to be gods, who will be human?" Isn't it nice to be a good person?" After speaking himself, he laughed for three seconds.

Ask her what divine power she thinks is in women? The answer is "toughness."

Images | provided by Lianjing Publishing

"Something soft is hard for me, like an elastic band, elastic to stretch and train your muscles." 」 "Many times in the face of external forces, if you push it back, you will be hurt." 」

Toughness is also the reason why Ah Bang has become more and more comfortable in recent years.

She does not put herself on the same track as others, to compete for any name, just want to make music for people with similar magnetic fields and willing to cherish, "I don't have great ambitions, only serve people who want to listen to my music, they will invest their hearts and minds to listen over and over again, give me feedback, and I can get nourishment from it." 」

Ah Bang also said that the more he lived, the more honest he became, admitting that there were some things he just couldn't do, focusing on those who could do it.

Like the title of this book, "Ari Goes Forward with a Question Mark," Ari is a Paiwan phrase "Let's go!" Let’s go！」 Meaning, she sincerely said, she did not know what is the right life, all the way is also holding a bunch of questions, slowly moving forward.

But walking like this also brought her here, and at the age of forty she gained a very comfortable, clear, and liking self.

The picture | A bang Facebook

postscript

In response to the epidemic, we conducted this interview by video.

Even so, it does not reduce the sense of presence, because Ah Bang often bursts out a burst of laughter during the interview, and hahaha echoes throughout the room. I felt like I was sitting in the first row of a concert, a rock zone that would drip sweat, surrounded by stereoscopic laughter.

I think this is the openness and ease that a person who knows who he is, who is very serious and alive every day, and who is willing to share himself! Like the mountains like the sea, like the earth, and like the mother.

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