In the 18th
century, French Revolution changed the history of France, and believed to
influence the faith of Europe. The history was written into one of the greatest
novels by Victor Hugo into Les Misérables, which was transformed into a musical
with the song – “Do you hear the people sing?” by Claude-Michel Schönberg and
Herbert Kretzmerm, which was, later on, sang by 12 different languages in the
10th anniversary concert in 1995 at Royal Albert Hall, London.
Two hundreds
years after the revolution, life is still difficult in some parts of the world,
more and more revolutions are happening across the straits as well as on the
other side of the continent. On a far faraway island, Taiwan, the government is
building the 4th nuclear power plant, despite there were already 3
on the tiny, densely populated country located in the seismic zone. Meanwhile,
one of the last natural coastlines of Taiwan was bought by a private company to
build a luxury resort made for tourists, which deprives the right for locals to
go to the beach for free, while endangering the lives of white dolphins in the
area. Moreover, people’s houses were taken down involuntarily by the government
for “urban development”, which benefits those who have money or powers. The
last straw could be the man who was killed innocently in the military by his
superiors in order to cover their corruptions. 30 years after the song “Do you
hear the people sing?” was composed, the Taiwanese doctor Wu Yicheng made a
cover of Taiwanese language, which became the most popular hit on Youtube in
the country (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJB-Lwuzpic). On the 3rd
Aug 2013, a quarter of a million walked on the streets in Taiwan, singing the
song to fight for the rights they deserve. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isymMqUH9Os / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IGA42kV2Zk).
The project People Power is an experiment. I intend
to examine the influence of media on the revolutions happening around the
world. For the exhibition in Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts starting this December,
I will design various media devices to trigger people’s emotions towards
revolutions, and one of the devices is that I will hide sound systems around
the museum, playing the song “Do you hear the people sing?” quietly and
secretly in different languages. So when audiences walk by some corners, they
will hear the songs but without knowing where the songs come from.
Are you angry
about something? Do you think people are not upset enough? Do you want to be
part of the revolutions? For the project, I am inviting you, no matter where
you are from, to convert the song into your mother language, or just to sing
the song in your mother language if it is already converted by the concert in
1995 (or of course, you’re welcome to make your version in the same languages).
To participate, please send the file of you singing the song (only the six
sentences in the chorus is necessary, and the background music is not needed,
please see the example - http://www.chengtingting.com/tw%20cover.mp3) to ting@chengtingting.com. In order to thank you for your
participation, your name will be listed on the exhibition catalogue, and you
will receive a copy for free after the show.
French version –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZowiT5ZyRs
German version –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0mC1398nOE
Japanese version
–https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6GKfEtnIRk
Hungarian version
–https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acesPnLRd7A
Swedish version –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TEqC1IE5JY
Polish version –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8mSceTt7ik
Dutch version –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuN-N6wUCfY
Norwegian version
–https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCHPI739Pz4
Czech version –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QVjmR0b8aU
Danish version –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VFWv4HjUvE
English version –https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=64tL1gz-1YY
