The Soundscape of Taiwan

30-Second Overview

Close your eyes: can you hear Taiwan? At 6:30 PM, the melody of Für Elise drifts down the alley as the garbage truck approaches; residents emerge one by one with their trash bags. Late at night, the drums and gongs of Beiguan resound at the temple entrance, while neon lights on electronic flower cars flicker before the statues of deities. In the mountains, the Bunun people sing the Pasibutbut in eight-part harmony to pray for a bountiful millet harvest—one of the oldest forms of polyphonic singing known to humanity.

Taiwan’s soundscape is not merely background noise; it is a living cultural code. Every sound carries history, memory, and identity.

Key Sounds:

• 🚛 Garbage truck music: A unique urban sonic ritual found nowhere else in the world
• 🏯 Temple fair music: Beiguan, Nanguan, and the drum ensembles of the Bajiajiang (Eight Generals)
• 🏔️ Indigenous polyphony: The Bunun Pasibutbut (four-part choir producing eight-part harmonics)
• 🛵 The Sea of Scooters: A symphony of engines from the world’s highest density of motor scooters
• 🌙 Night market hawking: A soundscape of the people’s economy

Why It Matters

Every city has its own sonic fingerprint. New York has the screech of subway trains and taxi horns; Tokyo has the departure melodies of train stations and the door chimes of convenience stores. But Taiwan’s soundscape has a unique characteristic: it simultaneously contains the ancient chants of the Austronesian peoples, the temple drums of Han immigrants, the school song traditions left from the Japanese colonial era, and the creative sounds of modern urban life.

This is not a single layer of sound, but 400 years of sonic archaeology.

Understanding Taiwan’s soundscape is listening to Taiwan’s history. And these sounds are disappearing: some swallowed by urbanization, others lost due to cultural断层 (gaps). Recording them is not just cultural preservation; it is a rescue mission.

The Sonic Code of Urban Daily Life

Garbage Truck Music: The World’s Most Civilized Way to Take Out the Trash

A Global Exclusive: Collecting Trash to Classical Music

The two classic melodies played by Taiwan’s garbage trucks are DNA-level memories for every Taiwanese:

1. Für Elise — Beethoven’s most well-known piano piece, primarily used by garbage trucks in Northern and Central Taiwan.
2. A Maiden's Prayer — A 1856 piano salon piece by Polish composer Tekla Bądarzewska, mostly played by garbage trucks in Southern Taiwan.

Interestingly, where you live in Taiwan determines which melody you hear: this may be the only case in the world where classical music delineates regional identity. Northerners find A Maiden's Prayer strange; Southerners are startled by Für Elise.

Since Taipei implemented the "Garbage Does Not Land" (垃圾不落地) policy in 1997, the music of garbage trucks has become a collective memory. This is more than just trash collection: it is a daily micro-ritual of the community, where neighbors meet at the alley entrance, exchange gossip, and dispose of trash.

Why Classical Music? When the Environmental Protection Agency selected the tracks in the 1980s, the criteria were that the music needed to be "easily recognizable, not unpleasant, and have a long transmission distance." Classical piano pieces fit perfectly: simple melodies, strong frequency penetration, and no copyright issues.

International Perspective: This is likely the most filmed urban spectacle by foreign YouTubers. "You use classical music to collect trash?" — Yes, and the entire population finds it perfectly normal. ¹

The Sea of Scooters: A Symphony of 14 Million Engines

Taiwan has over 14 million registered motor scooters, the highest density in the world. The moment the traffic light turns green, the sound of dozens of scooters accelerating simultaneously is the daily soundtrack for every commuter.

This sound is changing: the普及 (popularization) of electric scooters (such as Gogoro) has made cities slightly quieter, but that collective "hummm" of starting engines may become a nostalgic sound memory within a decade.

Election War Vehicles: The Decibels of Democracy

During every election season, propaganda vehicles carrying giant loudspeakers weave through streets and alleys, repeating candidates' names and numbers at maximum volume. This is arguably the loudest practice of democracy in the world.

Taiwanese people have mixed feelings about this: it is incredibly noisy, but it is also the most direct expression of freedom of speech. During the Martial Law era, you could even be arrested for posting a simple poster.

Sacred Sounds: Temple Fairs and Religion

Beiguan: The Rock and Roll of the Temple Entrance

Beiguan is the most common traditional music at Taiwan’s temple fairs. It is loud, rhythmically intense, and emotionally charged. If the definition of rock and roll is "expressing the strongest emotions at the highest volume," then Beiguan is Taiwan’s oldest rock music. Beiguan includes instrumental music (Pai-tzu and Xian-pu) and vocal music (opera and fine tunes). The lyrics of the vocal music use a "Standard Official Speech" (Zhengyin Guan-hua)—not Taiwanese Hokkien, but a system of classical Mandarin.

Historical Context: Beiguan was introduced to Taiwan during the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns of the Qing Dynasty, named in contrast to Nanguan (Southern Music) from Quanzhou. Interestingly, its vocal origins trace back to the Pujiang Luantan of Zhejiang and the Xiqin Opera of Guangdong, rather than directly from Fujian: Fujian today does not even have a theatrical genre identical to Beiguan. In Taiwan, Beiguan developed into two major schools: "Xipi" and "Fulu" (corresponding to "Xuan" and "Yuan" in local guilds). Rivalry between the two schools (Pin Guan) sometimes escalated into械斗 (armed conflicts): in Taiwan, disputes over musical taste could be bloody.

Modern Situation: Beiguan faces a severe inheritance crisis. Young people find it too noisy and too rustic, and the number of learners is dropping sharply. Ironically, international ethnomusicologists are amazed by the complexity of Beiguan’s banqiang system and qupai structure: it shares the same roots as Peking Opera’s Xipi and Erhuang, earning it the nickname "the cousin of Peking Opera in the countryside."

Nanguan (Xian-guan / Southern Music): The Oldest Chamber Music in the East

In sharp contrast to the violence of Beiguan, Nanguan is delicate, elegant, and slow-paced. Originally called "Xian-guan" (String Music), it originated in Quanzhou and was brought to Taiwan with Minnan immigrants. A typical "Shang Si Guan" (Upper Four Pipes) ensemble consists of: the horizontally held pipa, sanxian, dongxiao (preserving the Tang Dynasty’s chi-ba-inch specification of the shakuhachi), erxian, and clappers. In 2009, it was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity under the name "Nanyin." ²

Sonic Characteristics: Nanguan’s melody lines are extremely long; a single phrase can stretch for several minutes. During performance, "silks wipe forward" (si mo jiang lai)—starting with string instruments (pipa plucking), followed by the bamboo winds (dongxiao) melting in. Each part complements the others while remaining distinct. This is music that requires quiet listening: in an age of scarce attention, Nanguan’s first lesson is to "slow down."

Cultural Roots: Nanguan preserves the customs of the Han and Wei dynasties. Its ensemble structure traces back to the Han Dynasty’s Xianghe Ge ("silks and bamboo harmonize, the beat-keeper sings"). Its instrument types and musical structures are closely related to the grand tunes of the Tang and Song dynasties, earning it the title of "living musical fossil" and the reputation of "clear tones for a thousand years." In Taiwan, Lugang is the most important stronghold for Nanguan.

Unique Feature: The Nanguan pipa still uses the Tang Dynasty’s horizontal playing method, while other genres have long switched to vertical playing. This single posture is a time capsule of a thousand years.

Electronic Flower Cars: The Collision of the Sacred and the Secular

This is Taiwan’s most magical realist soundscape: on flower cars for funerals or temple fairs, pole dancers perform under neon lights while electronic synthesizers play music mixing Taiwanese songs, electronic dance music, and Buddhist sutras.

Cultural Logic: It may seem absurd, but there is a serious folk logic behind it: "Lively" is for the gods to see, and it is also the last party for the deceased. "Send him off with grandeur."

International Attention: Electronic flower cars have been featured in special reports by international media such as the BBC and Vice, regarded as the most unique visual and auditory spectacle of Taiwan’s folk culture.

The Layers of Sound in Sutras and Rituals

The morning and evening lessons in Buddhist temples, the chanting of Daoist sutras, and the drum ensembles during Mazu processions: religious sound is the deepest layer of Taiwan’s soundscape. In the city, you might simultaneously hear church bells, temple wooden fish, and the call to prayer from a mosque. This is Taiwan’s religious diversity, manifested through sound.

Indigenous Sounds: Memories of the Land

The Bunun Pasibutbut (Prayer for Millet Harvest): The Misnamed "Eight-Part Harmony"

The Bunun Pasibutbut is often called "Eight-Part Harmony," but this name is a beautiful misunderstanding: it is actually a four-part choir (mabungbung, maidadu, mandaza, mahosngas) that produces rich natural harmonics through reinforced chest resonance and throat singing, creating an eight-part effect on a spectrogram. It is not eight people singing eight parts; it is four parts singing a physical miracle.

In 1952, Japanese musicologist Takao Kurosawa submitted a recording of this song to UNESCO, shocking the international ethnomusicology community. ³

Sonic Characteristics: Six to twelve men (in even numbers) hold hands in a circle, rising from low to high pitches using the vowels "o," "e," "a," and "i." There is no conductor, no sheet music: harmony is achieved purely through mutual listening and the blending of sounds. When the harmonics align, you hear a number of parts exceeding the number of singers: this is one of the most mysterious acoustic phenomena achievable by the human voice.

Cultural Significance: Pasibutbut is a ritual to communicate with the sky god Dihanin, sung only during the millet harvest season from January to March. The more harmonious the singing, the happier the sky god, and the more abundant the millet harvest. It is currently only passed down in the Lanyu (Lanyu) and Junyu (Junyu) groups of the Bunun people; not all Bunun tribes sing it.

Origin Legend: Tribe members heard the resonance of hollow giant trees and wild bees, the echo of waterfalls, or the wind in pine forests and bamboo groves during hunting trips, believing it to be a blessing from the sky god. They imitated these sounds to create the song. Different tribes have different origin stories, but all point to the same thing: this song comes from the sounds of nature.

The Amis: Song and Dance of the Paddy Harvest Festival

The Amis Paddy Harvest Festival (Ilisin) is one of the largest celebrations of Taiwan’s indigenous peoples. Over several days of song and dance, the "antiphonal singing" between the lead singer and the group demonstrates the dynamic relationship between the collective and the individual.

Sonic Characteristics: The lead singer improvises, and the group responds. Lyrics can be improvised, while melodies are relatively fixed. This singing style is also common in African music: the similarities between Austronesian and African music remain a research topic in ethnomusicology.

The Paiwan and Rukai: Double-Pipe Nose Flutes

The double-pipe nose flute (lalingedan) of the Paiwan and Rukai peoples is one of the few instruments in the world played through the nose. One pipe plays the melody, the other plays a continuous drone, creating a unique acoustic effect.

Cultural Context: In Paiwan tradition, the nose flute is an instrument exclusive to nobles, closely linked to the class system. It is used in important occasions such as weddings and funerals; the player’s breath is considered an extension of the soul.

The Tao (Yami): Clapping Songs and the Ocean

The Tao people of Orchid Island (Lanyu) are Taiwan’s only maritime indigenous group. Their music is inseparable from the ocean. Clapping songs during the flying fish season and work songs during boat building all echo the rhythm of the sea.

Writer Shiman Lanbao said: "The memory of the waves is longer than that of humans." The music of the Tao people is the sonic version of this statement.

Sounds of Nature

Spring Thunder and Plum Rain

Taiwan’s climate has distinct seasonal sounds: the first thunder of spring, the heavy rain of the plum rain season beating on tin roofs, and the eerie silence of a few seconds before summer afternoon thunderstorms. Anyone who has lived in a house with a tin roof in Taiwan knows: the sound of rain can be so loud that you cannot hear what your neighbor is saying.

Cicada Songs

Taiwan has over 60 species of cicadas. Summer cicada songs can reach 90 decibels—the volume of a vacuum cleaner. Different altitudes host different cicada species, forming a vertical spectrum of sound: the Formosan cicada at low altitudes, the Takasago cicada at mid-altitudes, and the Ezo cicada at high altitudes, each with its own timbre and rhythm.

Sounds of Taiwan Endemic Species

The song of the Taiwan bush robin is widely regarded as one of the most beautiful bird songs in Taiwan. The dog-like barking of the Formosan muntjac often startles hikers. In the mountain forests at night, the calls of owls and frogs intertwine, constituting the unique nocturnal soundscape of Taiwan’s mountains.

Sounds Disappearing

The Whistle of the Knife Sharpeners

Riding bicycles and pressing special whistles to hawk "Sharpen—Scissors—" along the streets, knife sharpeners were once one of the most familiar sounds in Taiwan’s alleys. With modernization, this sound is nearing extinction.

The Hawking Broadcasts of Hardware Stores

Hardware store hawking broadcasts recorded in Taiwanese Hokkien ("Come, come, storewide sale...") were once the background sound of Taiwan’s towns and streets. Today, they are only heard in some traditional markets and rural areas.

The Sounds of the Radio Era

Before the popularization of television, radios were the sonic center of Taiwanese households. Taiwanese Hokkien radio dramas, opera broadcasts, and puppet show dubbing shaped the auditory memory of an entire generation; today, they exist only in the memories of the elderly.

The Loss of Taiwanese Hokkien Tones

Taiwanese Hokkien has eight tones (seven actually used), making it one of the daily languages with the richest tonal systems in the world. But with the promotion of Mandarin education, the Taiwanese Hokkien proficiency of younger generations is dropping sharply. When a language disappears, it is not just vocabulary that is lost, but the unique sonic texture and musicality of that language—the inflection and cadence of Taiwanese Hokkien is itself a melody.

🚇 The MRT Soundscape Project

In 2018, Dahe Music conducted a unique field recording along the Taipei MRT lines: the "MRT Soundscape Project." They recorded the most representative daily sounds near every station along the MRT network. These 8-second audio clips are like a map of Taipei walked through the ears.

📝 Curator’s Note: Every MRT station has its own sonic DNA. The chanting and divination at Xingtian Temple, the buzzing of tattoo machines in Ximending, the hawking of New Year goods in Dihua Street—these are not "noise"; they are evidence of a living city.

🎧 Listen: Taipei MRT Soundscape (Recorded by Dahe Music, March 2018)

Contemporary Sound Experiments

Sound Art

Taiwan has a vibrant sound art scene. Platforms such as C-LAB (Taiwan Contemporary Culture Experiment Center), Local Experiment, and the Lacking Sound Festival (Shi Sheng Ji) continuously promote the creation and performance of sound art. ⁴ Artists such as Wang Fu-rui, Yao Zhong-han, and Zhang Yong-da transform Taiwan’s environmental sounds into contemporary artistic language.

Field Recording

More and more sound workers are investing in field recordings of Taiwan, documenting disappearing sounds. From high mountain forests to coastal intertidal zones, from old markets to industrial zones—these recordings are not just archives; they are auditory cultural assets. ⁵

Interactive Sound Installations

Taiwan’s new media artists have shown outstanding performance in the field of interactive sound installations. Combining sensors, real-time computing, and spatial audio, they transform the audience’s body movements into sound experiences—making "listening" a whole-body participatory event.

Soundscape Preservation Projects

The Taiwan Soundscape Association, integrating resources from the Ministry of Culture, continues to promote the recording and preservation of "endangered soundscapes." The hawking sounds of traditional markets, the drum music of temple fairs, and the machine sounds of老字号 (time-honored) handicraft industries—sounds disappearing due to urban renewal or industrial decline—are preserved through field recordings.

Surprising Facts

• 🔢 Garbage Truck Music is Globally Unique: Taiwan is the only country in the world that uses classical music to remind residents to take out the trash. The two melodies have been used for over 25 years, becoming the most powerful trigger for national collective memory.
• 🔢 "Eight-Part Harmony" is Actually Four Parts: The Bunun Pasibutbut is a four-part choir producing an eight-part effect through natural harmonics. Shocked the international musicology community after Takao Kurosawa submitted it to UNESCO in 1952.
• 🔢 Nanguan is a Living Fossil: Preserving musical elements from the Tang and Song dynasties, it is one of the oldest existing chamber music traditions in East Asia, inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2009.
• 🔢 Taiwanese Cicada Songs Reach 90 Decibels: The volume of summer cicadas is equivalent to a vacuum cleaner. Over 60 species of cicadas constitute one of the world’s highest-density cicada soundscapes.
• 🔢 Taiwanese Hokkien Has Seven Tones: It is one of the daily languages with the richest tonal systems in the world. Changing any tone changes the meaning of the word; the language itself is music.
• 🔢 The Drum Sounds of Mazu Processions: During the annual白沙屯 (Baishatun) Mazu徒步進香 (walking pilgrimage), up to 100,000 people can be mobilized. Wherever the procession goes, the sound of firecrackers and drums stretches for kilometers. This is Taiwan’s largest-scale mobile soundscape event.
• 🔢 The Sound Layers of Taiwan’s Night Markets: A night market has an average background noise of 80-90 decibels—sizzling oil pans, hawking voices, electronic sound effects from game stalls—the night market soundscape is the most dense sound package of Taiwan’s people’s life.
• 🔢 C-LAB Lacking Sound Festival: The Lacking Sound Festival (Shi Sheng Ji) at Taipei Kongzong is one of Asia’s most important experimental sound art festivals. It attracts international sound artists to Taiwan annually, making Taiwan a key node in Asian sound art.

Further Reading:

• Taiwan Soundscape — Sister article: The same sounds, re-asked from the perspective of "how we listen," co-created by soundscape researchers.
• 🎧 Taiwan Soundscape Recording Project — The audio version of this article: 21 field recordings of garbage trucks, temple fairs, MRT, and natural sounds available online. Welcome to contribute your recordings.
• Wang Fu-rui — Founded Taiwan’s first experimental music label, NOISE, in 1993. The source of the lineage mentioned in the "Sound Art" section: Wang Fu-rui, Yao Zhong-han, and Zhang Yong-da.
• Traditional Music of Taiwan’s Indigenous Peoples — The Bunun eight-part harmony, Paiwan mouth organs, and other traditional sounds are the oldest layer of Taiwan’s soundscape.
• Taiwan KTV Culture — From show venues to private rooms, KTV is one of the most common artificial sound sources in Taiwan’s nightscape. The singing voices of five people in a private room leaking out constitute a unique sonic fingerprint of Taiwan’s nights.
• Development of Taiwan Hip-Hop and Rap — From urban basements to the KKBOX charts, the sonic texture of rap has changed the soundscape layers of Taiwan’s popular music.

References