Songs From the Roots : [music]

Abstract/Sommario: Taiwan's modern pop scene has been nurtured by an old music tradition. 'Liam kua' is essentially the natural integration ofvernacular speech, poetry and music. In the 1980s. Holo pop song made a comeback after a decline. As a tonal language, Holo retains seven of ancient Chinese's eight tones - in contrast to Mandarin's four. Each local group has its own form of talking-singing: the melody is based on the lyrics, not vice versa