Chen Ming-chang

On July 27, 2019, Chen Ming-chang released a single titled "Hong Kong! Freedom" (香港！自由) on YouTube in support of the anti-extradition bill protests in Hong Kong. The song had two versions, one in Taiwanese and the other in Cantonese. He also participated in a free public concert in Liberty Square that November in support of the Hong Kong protests.

In 2010, he composed and produced Huang Fei's hit single "Chase Chase Chase" (追追追). He wrote the score for the Zero Chou film Ripples of Desire in 2012, which prominently features the Taiwanese yueqin.

In 2009, Chen founded the Taiwanese Yueqin Folksong Association (台灣月琴民謠協會), which has hosted an annual four-week yueqin folk song festival at the Beitou Hot Springs Museum during the Mid-Autumn Festival since 2011. The group promotes broader interest for the Taiwanese yueqin via outreach to schools, community colleges and community centers. The organization also conducts exchanges with Japanese shamisen players.

In the past, he would borrow musicians from Wu Bai's band China Blue. Since the early 2000s, he has also been known for collaborating with, as well as producing and composing songs for singer Huang Fei.

Because of his illness, Chen Ming-chang stopped writing music for two years until 1995, when he wrote popular and award-winning "Wandering to Tamsui" (流浪到淡水), which was inspired by the lifestyles of wandering minstrels Chin Man-wang (金門王) and Lee Ping-huei (李炳輝). He founded a musical group called the Danshui Wandering Minstrels in 1997. The members of the band all had day jobs: the guitarist A-Chang (阿昌) was a judicial scrivener, bassist Steve (史帝夫) was an American lawyer, the drummer Little Huang (小黃) was a manager at a medicine factory, Huai-yi (懷一) worked in advertising, and Chen Ming-chang was growing orchids. Only their manager A-liang (阿亮) worked for the group full-time. They agreed that to not give up their day jobs so that playing music would remain a fun hobby for them. The group practiced on Saturdays and performed all across Taiwan.

After establishing his musical studio, a friend of his gave one of his cassette recordings to Hou Hsiao-hsien. After half a year, Hou's assistant gave him a call and asked if he write the musical score for Dust in the Wind, which would go on to win a best music award at the Three Continents Festival. Hou would also ask Chen to write the score for The Puppetmaster in 1993, for which he won the award for best score at the Film Fest Gent in Belgium. According to Chen, it was this prize that gave him some assurance that he could make a living writing music.

That year, he also suffered a spinal injury, which Chen has attributed to his alcohol use. He had long seen alcohol as a source of creative inspiration, drinking late into the night while working and not rising until the afternoon. In 1993 he suffered a spinal injury and quit drinking while in the hospital, but suffered from anxiety and panic attacks afterwards which made it difficult for him to think. During this time he would go to the mountain temples in Beitou every day to listen to Buddhist scripture readings.

In 1992, after an island-wide tour of college campuses, Chen took a break from his solo career to write music for The Puppetmaster and other films. He felt that his music had become tired, and that it was easier to write film scores since the ideas were already in place. In 1993, he wrote songs for events hosted by the Garden of Hope Foundation to rescue child prostitutes. His experiences at these events led him to write the popular song "She is Our Darling", which became the anthem for the 228 Hand-In-Hand Rally in 2004, and was also played at the end of the 326 March To Protect Taiwan (三二六護台灣大遊行) in response to the passage of the Anti-Secession Law in China.

It was then that Chen began to experiment with composing music, as his singing was not good enough for the group, according to the album notes to his 1990 album An Afternoon Drama. In a 2002 interview, he said that the group would practice singing during their studies at Minghsin University of Science and Technology, but since he was serving his mandatory military service at the time he couldn't participate. After he was discharged, they already had two guitarists and had no need for another. To make a living, he worked as a merchant selling a variety of goods, such as clothing, watches and pianos.

In 1990, Chen Ming-chang's music began to grow in popularity. He released two albums that year: Live Works 1 (現場作品(1)) and An Afternoon Drama (下午的一齣戲), and Live Works 2 in the following year. These works were all critically acclaimed in the music industry.

They formed the group Blacklist Studio and in 1989 released alternative Taiwanese rock album "Songs of Madness" (抓狂歌) with Rock Records. Each song reflected a social reality of the time: "Taxi" (計程車) and "Dad's Words" (阿爸的話) were about everyday life for the people, and the song "A-Tsao Democracy" (民主阿草) was a political satire about the "Thousand Year National Assembly" (referring to the fact that the most of the seats in the National Assembly, representing various provinces in China, were essentially made to be permanent members). Beyond reflecting the social situation of the time, the band opened new possibilities for Taiwanese language music by experimenting with styles such as rap, folk, and rock, as opposed to the sentimental ballads which had typified Taiwanese music in the past.

In 1987, martial law was lifted in Taiwan after nearly 40 years, and Taiwan entered a new era. At the time, Chen Ming-chang was working as a manufacturing assistant at Four Seas Records (四海唱片) along with Wang Ming-hui (王明輝), Chen Chu-hui (陳主惠) and Lin Wei-je (林煒哲), where they talked about working on something themselves. According to Chen:

In 1982, at age 26, Chen Ming-chang's father suffered from a stroke, and he went back to Beitou to help take care of him as well as help his mother run their jewelry store. Two years later, when his younger brother finished his military service, Ming-chang decided he would try his hand at music again. His supportive mother and sister bought him a piano and a four-track recorder. They converted the fourth floor of their house into a recording studio, where Ming-chang would teach guitar in the evenings after working in the family shop.

In his youth, Chen Ming-chang hoped to become a baseball player. He was not very studious and in 1972, he was admitted to Fuxing Senior High School in Beitou and played first base for the high school team. He dreamed of going to the United States to play in the MLB. Neglecting his homework to practice baseball, it took him four years rather than the usual three to complete high school.

Chen Ming-chang (陳明章) (born July 4, 1956) is a Taiwanese folk singer, guitarist, Taiwanese yueqin player, composer, and producer born in Beitou. He is known for writing scores for the Hou Hsiao-Hsien films Dust in the Wind (1985) and The Puppetmaster (1993), as well as for songs such as "She Is Our Darling" (伊是咱的寶貝, 1993) and "Wandering to Tamsui" (流浪到淡水, 1995). He is stylistically known for singing primarily in Taiwanese Hokkien, incorporating traditional styles and instruments into his music, as well as songs that represent the Taiwanese underclass.

Chen Ming-chang was born in 1956 in Beitou Village, Yangmingshan Administrative Bureau (now Beitou District in Taipei). Chen Ming-chang's first musical instrument was his older brother's guitar, which his mother bought for 2700 NTD as a reward for his high school admission. His brother barely used it and left it for Ming-chang, then in his 2nd year of middle school, to play with.