Sodagreen: From the Gongliao Small Stage to the "Oaeen" Struggle — A Twenty-Year Battle to Reclaim Musical Sovereignty

30-Second Overview:
Sodagreen is one of Taiwan's most iconic indie bands, known for lead vocalist Wu Qing-feng's distinctive voice and deeply literary songwriting. The most moving story lies beyond the music: the dramatic reversal from a father–son bond with their former manager Lin Whei-che to facing each other across a courtroom. To reclaim the rights to their band name and trademark, they were forced to reinvent themselves as "Oaeen," surviving in the narrow space between law and creativity, and ultimately succeeded in recovering the name "Sodagreen" in 2022.

The Gongliao Ocean Music Festival: That "Scary High" Voice

In July 2003, on the Hot Rock small stage at the Gongliao Ocean Music Festival, a student band was performing what they thought would be their farewell show. Producer Lin Whei-che, standing in the crowd, stopped in his tracks. He later recalled that the male lead's voice was "neither male nor female — scary high"¹. That moment of encounter saved Sodagreen from dissolution and set in motion one of the most remarkable chapters in the history of Taiwanese pop music.

At the time, Sodagreen still carried a distinctly campus feel. In 2004, they sold their first single, Sight and Sound in the Air, on the campus of National Chengchi University — a hand-packaged CD limited to 2,000 copies. This was their debut release and the starting point of their independent spirit².

📝 Curator's Note
Sodagreen's success is essentially the victory of an "outsider." At a time when the mainstream music industry was still chasing the binary of masculine or sweet, Wu Qing-feng's androgynous, ethereal, and piercingly powerful voice cut a gap straight through the market. Lin Whei-che once said: "I just let talented people be seen." Sixteen years later, those words carry the weight of fateful irony.

"I Always Treated Him as a Father": The Mentor–Protégé Rupture in Court

In 2019, while Sodagreen was on hiatus, lead vocalist Wu Qing-feng was suddenly sued by Lin Whei-che for alleged violations of the Copyright Act. The crux of the lawsuit was this: Lin claimed that Wu had exclusively licensed all of his songwriting and composition rights to his company, meaning Wu could not perform his own songs — including over 270 classics such as Little Love Song and Incomparable Beauty — without permission³⁴.

On March 30, 2021, the Taipei District Court held its first hearing — the first time mentor and protégé had faced each other in court since the dispute began. Wu Qing-feng broke down in tears on the stand: "I always treated him as a father. I don't know how it came to this."⁵ The shift from a bond as close as father and son to the cold language of legal statutes became one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the history of the Taiwanese music industry.

✦ "I have not a shred of guilt." — Wu Qing-feng wrote in a 4,000-character statement recounting the defendant process⁶.

Oaeen: Deconstructing "Sodagreen" as a Symbol of Resistance

During the dark period when they could not use the name or trademark "Sodagreen," the six members did not give up. Instead, they deconstructed the traditional Chinese characters of "蘇打綠" to form the alter-ego band "Oaeen" (魚丁糸). "魚" (fish) takes the fish radical from "蘇," "丁" takes the right half of "打," and "糸" takes the lower half of "綠"⁷.

Behind the name change was a "semantic struggle" waged for the survival of their music. During the Oaeen era, each member also adopted an alter-ego stage name — Qing-feng became "Sunrise," Xin-yi became "Fragrant Me." Through a "re-recording" project, they re-recorded their past albums, reclaiming sovereignty over melodies frozen by law through new performances⁸.

"It's Time to Let Go": The Major Turning Point of May 30, 2022

On May 30, 2022, at the height of the pandemic, Lin Whei-che suddenly issued a statement announcing that he was relinquishing the trademark rights to "Sodagreen." In the statement, he wrote: "An inner voice told me it's time to let go."⁹ The three-year legal tug-of-war ended in an unexpectedly quiet manner.

On February 18, 2023, on the stage of Taipei Arena, the six members stood together once more. When the lead vocalist shouted loudly, "We are Sodagreen!" ten thousand fans in the audience wept, as the twenty-year battle for a name and for freedom finally came to a close¹⁰.

Afterword: The Taiwan Barbet and Sodagreen's Re-Recording

Sodagreen's story is, in many ways, a microcosm of the island of Taiwan itself: searching for a voice amid suppression, seeking self-definition while being defined by others. They once said music was their life, and when that life was given a price tag and claimed as property, they chose the most painstaking method — re-recording song by song — to prove that a creator's soul is something the law can never truly imprison.

The boy with the scary-high voice on that small stage at the Ocean Music Festival in 2003 is still singing today. Only now, he no longer needs anyone's permission to sing his own Little Love Song.

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