Fulao popular songs during the Japanese colonization of Taiwan

This document details the history of Fulao popular songs during the 1930s. Fulao popular songs form the dominant pioneering popular song genre of Taiwan during the Japanese colonization (1895-1945). From 1932 to 1939, over 500 popular songs were composed in Fulao, a Taiwanese dialect that was used during the Japanese colonization. The style of these songs was influenced by the entertainment cultures, record and film industries, and the promotion of American dance music brought by Japanese corporations. Simultaneously, the Bai-Hua Movement, a literary movement geared toward the simplification of the written Chinese language, was influencing the lyrics of Fulao popular songs. Many Fulao popular songs from this period were re-recorded by later singers in modern arrangements and utilized as raw material in the compositions of Western-trained composers in Taiwan. This dissertation presents the history of record companies during the colonization and of the Bai-Hua Movement. It analyzes the recordings, lyrics, and musical style of fifteen representative Fulao popular songs, including two songs that were banned by the Japanese government.