Taiwan: From music to rice–the people and the earth · Global Voices
I-fan Lin

Due to the big music market and the hot music industry, Taiwanese love and are familiar with pop songs and different kinds of music.
In Yun-Ru Shih's article, based on Miao-Ru Chien's research:
台灣流行音樂產業的崛起起始自七零年代的民歌運動，到了八零年代末、九零年代初迅速成長到五十億台幣，1996年破百億後，1997年更達到歷來最高的123億台幣，在全球唱片市場排名由第21位竄升至第13位，在亞洲排名第二（僅次於日本）。（簡妙如,2002）
Oldlady talked about the recent 18th Golden Melody Award (6/16/2007) and an unexpected interlude in the award ceremony:
客語歌手林生祥（參考生祥與樂團網站）連續拒領兩個獎項，他說：「金曲獎應該用音樂類型來分類，而不是用族群，我覺得金曲獎太不合時宜，我參加過很多國外音樂祭，都被歸類在世界音樂或民謠，我建議金曲獎放開心胸，大膽改變，廢除這個獎項，因為這個獎項，使得用客家母語的歌手失去了良善競爭的眾多對手，也使客家歌曲被邊緣化。」然後把兩獎共25萬的獎金，捐給包括美濃自發性種樹團體、月光山雜誌、青芽兒雜誌和白米炸彈客楊儒門４個團體及個人。
About the categories made based on language, Sabinasun talked about the history of this award：
1987年台灣才解嚴，1988年媒體界才開始有新聞自由和改革。「金曲獎」其實是為了提倡與擴張台灣地區的音樂市場而在1988年由新聞局設立的音樂獎項。早期獎項也以「國語歌曲」作為最高榮譽，是響應威權時代「國語政策」的文化策略。九十年代以來，台灣本土意識越來越強，音樂界又有「新台語搖滾」和後來的「台客搖滾」流行市場。遲到2003年，金曲獎才開始增設「台語」，「客語」和「原住民」等所謂「少數族群」的獎項，以反應新的多元文化社會的現實。
這個多元文化的立意本來是好的，但問題是金曲獎設立初期以族群語言來分類音樂和優越化「國語歌曲」，本身就是一個「操弄族群」的產物，如今不去質疑這個前提，而只是增加「其他的」語言獎項，仍然難以擺脫操弄的嫌疑。況且，企圖選出不同族群的「代言人」，對文化創作來說，是一個過於老舊的文化治理概念，尤其像是音樂這種相當容易「跨界」與「混種化」的文化生產。
Sheng-Hsiang Lin from Meinung is a Hakka social activist and a musician who was involved in anti-Meinung Dam movement.  In southern Taiwan, Meinung is a Hakka community whose economy is mainly based on agriculture.  After the anti-Meinung Dam movement, Sheng-Hsiang Lin continues to care about the farmers.
However, the message about the music categorization is submerged fast because of another topic raised and attracted most media's attention: President Shiu-Bian Chen said he would pardon Ju-Men Yang on 6/19/2007, three days after Sheng-Hsiang Lin's speech in the Golden Melody Award and donating part of the prize to Ju-Men Yang.
Ju-Men Yang was sentenced seven-and-a-half years in jail in 2005 because he planted 17 bombs in public areas in 2003 and 2004.  Two of the bombs did explode without injuries.  He is called ‘rice bomber’ because some rice was mixed with the explosives.  He turned himself in later and claimed that his work was intended to evoke public attention toward the farmers.  Even in jail, he tried to use hunger strike to evoke public attention during the WTO meeting in 2005.
Because of setting bombs, although he tried to help the farmers, people have different opinions toward his case.  In an cosigning activity to support Yang, Pei-Hui Tsai said,
針對楊儒門放置十七次炸彈，所涉及對公共安全的影響，我們在同情楊儒門之餘，尊重司法機關的處置。
問題的關鍵在於，政府加入WTO的苦果正由窮苦農民默默承受，壓力已達臨界點，楊儒門不過是點燃引信的那個人。如果，楊儒門的所做所為，讓政府、讓農委會震驚，恐怕不是因為楊儒門製造問題，而是他恰如其份的點出了台灣基層農村的問題。
Both Sheng-Hsiang Lin and  Ju-Men Yang are from agriculture communities.  After many trading policies promoted by WTO, they saw the changes in the agriculture communities, and they hope the high-tech industry-oriented Taiwanese can also see the problems in our agriculture communities, and how these problems will become all Taiwanese’ problems.
Unlike the big agribusiness corporations in United States, in Taiwan, most farmers only own small farms with some specific crops.  Because the market prefers beautiful products, farmers are forced to spray pesticides by themselves.  Hopemarket discuss the news that a farmer died when spraying pesticide:
其實這早已不是「新聞」了，我開始接觸這個部分以後，去產地拜訪，詢問農友為什麼會轉作有機或者是無農藥殘留的耕作方式，只要是本來務農的農人，有一半以 上，是因為農藥中毒，才驚覺農藥原來是這麼可怕的東西，不僅傷害農人自己本身，也傷害土地，更別說是作物殘留農藥吃了對人體的危害
When these farmers start to do the organic farming, they always have a very hard time.  Hopemarket said,
有機農人不能使用殺菌劑或其他保花保果的資材，因此遇到狂風暴雨，只能讓果實自然掉落。 而蔬菜農友更慘，因為天氣炎熱，很多作物有溫度障礙，例如花椰菜與萵苣喜歡比較涼冷的生長氣候，夏天就會過熱而長不起來；番茄與苦瓜在夏季容易有疫病，一場大雨下來，農友的心血全部都泡在水裡，沒有東西收成。
In addition to the pesticides and organic farming, farmers are worried about the low price of their crops.  The problem of price is not limited in Taiwan.  The policies WTO tries to promote cause unfair trading and give the farmers an extremely hard time to live.   About this problem, Iron said,
當西方國家不斷鼓吹自由貿易時，卻一方面鉅額補貼國內農業出口，使其能以低價大量傾銷到第三世界；另一方面，卻透過雙邊談判或國際經濟組織要求第三世界國 家取消關稅、減低對其他產業的政策補貼，及開放市場。這是不公平的貿易。數以百萬的發展中國家小農因為西方的 農業傾銷而被迫賤賣農產品，甚至被推離市場。
Nowadays WTO has gigantic impact on the agriculture system in numerous countries.  To respond to the impact, Taiwan's government also have subsidies for ‘farmers that do not do farming.’  However, this policy makes many farming areas be ignored, abandoned, damaged, and over-priced.  Turtle said,
台灣的休耕政策只重「休耕補貼」，卻忽視更重要的環境管理，農村文化景觀就這樣逐漸凋零；歐洲國家的休耕政策則強調「環境補貼」，凡是有利於環境生態就可領取補助。如何呼應世界趨勢與進步觀念，已是當前檢討休耕政策重要方向。
On the other hand, when we think about agriculture, we can have another perspective in addition to trade and politics (voting power).  laches said,
農業不只是商品貿易，而是一種土地和人之間的關係。
Talking about the relationship between the earth and human beings, how about singing the song ‘Planting trees’ (lyrics by Yung-Feng Chung and music  Sheng-Hsiang Lin):
種給離鄉的人
種給太寬的路面
種給歸不得的心情
種給留鄉的人
種給落難的童年
種給出不去的心情
Planting trees for the roads that are too broad
Planting trees for not being able to go back
Planting trees for the people who stay
Planting trees for the disastrous childhood
Planting trees for not being able to leave