National Formosa University held the "Voice of Formosa: Master Lecture Series on Indigenous Languages" on 5/14 (Wednesday), inviting Golden Melody Award winner and Bunun music composer Ising Wang to deliver a talk titled "Muskun Kata — Together We Are." Through personal stories, cultural memory, and musical composition, Wang guided faculty and students in exploring the life wisdom of the Bunun people. He also performed three of his own compositions on-site — "Song Before the Hunt," "Longing for a Faraway Homeland," and "Moonlight" — demonstrating the emotional depth and cultural richness of Indigenous languages.
Wang said, "The ridgelines of the mountains are the rise and fall of sound. Our rituals, music, and way of singing are all deeply shaped by the mountains." He also led the audience in singing "Song Before the Hunt" on-site, guiding NFU faculty and students through the experience of traditional Bunun hunting rituals. Wang explained that, in his community, hunters always sing this ancient chant before heading up the mountain to hunt. Through the singing, they not only pray for a bountiful harvest, but also for a safe and successful hunt.
Wang was the first musician to win the Golden Melody Award for "Best Male Singer in an Indigenous/Dialect Language" through Indigenous-language composition. He shared that his original motivation for writing songs in his mother tongue was simply wanting to write a song his grandmother could understand.
"Longing for a Faraway Homeland" was his first composition written in his native language. He recalled that his grandmother, while weaving fabric and listening to the song, once told him, "The patterns I weave while listening to this song turn out especially beautiful." Wang explained that Bunun elders avoid direct praise, fearing it might make someone arrogant — but that remark was, in fact, her way of expressing approval. His grandmother's single sentence changed the course of his life, and through music, he came to reflect differently on his own ethnic identity, discovering a new understanding of what it means to create.
During the event, Wang also shared his personal journey — from composing in his native language, to earning recognition at the Golden Melody Awards, and later branching out into Mandarin pop music — encouraging young students to face life's challenges head-on while seeking out the things that move them, saying that such passions can give them strength throughout the process. He performed his most widely beloved song, "Moonlight," inviting audience members on stage to sing along, creating a warm and lively atmosphere. As an encore, he performed "It's You," with faculty and students in the audience joining together in harmony, using music to bring everyone's emotions together.
At the close of the lecture, Wang shared the Bunun greeting "Mihumisang" — meaning to breathe well — symbolizing blessing and the continuation of life, and led the faculty and students in responding with "Uninang," meaning thank you, embodying the spirit of mutual gratitude and blessing found within Bunun culture. Finally, using the Bunun phrase "muskun kata," meaning "together, we," he invited NFU faculty and students to join him for a group photo, bringing today's event to a warm and fitting close.
Article provided by: Language Teaching Center, Secretariat Office
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NFU President Chang Hsin-Liang (left) thanks Ising Wang for visiting campus to give a talk and performance, broadening students' multicultural perspectives. |
NFU's "Master Lecture Series on Indigenous Languages" invites Golden Melody Award-winning singer Ising Wang to campus for a talk and performance. |
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| Golden Melody Award-winning singer Ising Wang visits NFU, leading the entire audience in singing a traditional Bunun chant. | |