Hou Dejian

b. 1956, Taiwan

Rock musician

Throughout the 1980s, rock musician, political activist, and all-around cause célèbre Hou Dejian was the embodiment of China’s post-1949 split personality. The Taiwan-born singer-songwriter emerged from the island’s so-called ‘coffeehouse folk’ movement, which flowered under the relatively benign regime of Chiang Ching-Kuo in the 1970s. He was soon catapulted onto a larger stage with the release of his huge 1979 hit, ‘Descendants of the Dragon’, a ringing statement of pan-Chinese nationalism that made Hou a lightning rod for the contentious issue of Chinese reunification.

In the ancient East there is a dragon; China is its name.

In the ancient East there lives a people, The dragon’s heirs every one.

Under the claws of this mighty dragon I grew up And its descendant I have become.

Like it or not—Once and forever, a descendant of the dragon.

(‘Descendants of the Dragon’)

Hou created headlines and reversed a trend when he defected to the mainland in 1983 to reassert his Chinese roots. Welcomed at first by the PRC government, who viewed him as a useful propaganda tool, Hou became a popular performer and important influence on the nascent Chinese rock music scene (see rock music, rock bands). He eventually grew disenchanted with Communist rule and in 1989 acted as a highly visible spokesperson for prodemocracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square. The following year PRC authorities forcibly repatriated him to Taiwan, where he was arrested and briefly detained. Hou remains active in music and has composed soundtracks to films ranging from Hong Kong martial arts thrillers to the dark 1993 Taiwanese drama Moonlight Boy (Yueguang shaonian).

Further reading

Jaivin, Linda (1996). ‘Hou Dejian and the Rise of Pop Music in Taiwan in the Seventies’. Chime 9 (Autumn): 118–23.

DENNIS REA