An upcoming free outdoor Taiwanese music festival comes with a mission: to celebrate LGBTQ+ visibility and promote HIV/AIDS awareness, topics that have been difficult to discuss openly in many Asian communities.
Formosound is a local music event that's partnering with the A+ Love concert series. A+ Love is a Taiwanese organization that has produced large-scale concerts featuring Mandopop (Mandarin pop music genre) icons since 2018 to uplift LGBTQ+ communities and fight the stigma of HIV/AIDS. The collaboration marks the first high-profile Mandopop-Taiwanese music festival in the U.S. Formosound will feature a performance by Taiwanese American drag queen Felicia Oh from New York City and will offer a food and vendor market with close to 50 local vendors.
Formosound takes place in Redmond's Downtown Park on Aug. 29.
"When Taiwan legalized same-sex marriage in 2019, it brought hope to young people, but there's still quite a way to go for Taiwan to be more open to LGBTQ groups," Kuo Tzu (郭子), an award-winning musical artist and co-founder of A+ Love, said through an interpreter. "In the rural areas, LGBTQ [people] are not as accepted, and there's strong resistance from the religious community."
Ohay Angah, a University of Washington doctoral student who identifies as gay and Indigenous Taiwanese from the Pangcah/Amis People, has experienced the stigma. Though she said her father can't accept her sexual orientation because of his religion, she described one benefit of legalized same-sex marriage: "Before this act passed, my mother couldn't accept same-sex marriage [or] me with a girlfriend. But after, my mother kind of accepted same-sex relationship, but had a conservative view." Angah continued, "She told me, 'Your wife will need to live with us and cook and clean the home,' just like a [Taiwanese] traditional wife." Angah said people in Taiwan are more willing to talk about this topic, but there are still cultural barriers.
The Taiwanese community has grown in the greater Seattle area to well over 10,000 people, contributing to a demand for up to 50 direct weekly flights to Taipei at peak season. Formosound Music Festival stage manager and Kent resident Harley Pan said that while many Taiwanese tech workers rent or own houses on the Eastside or live in South Lake Union, a growing number are purchasing homes in Renton, Kent, Tukwila, and Southeast Seattle.
"At Kent Station [Shopping Center] there's now a Dough Zone, and … a Taiwanese MissBoba is in downtown Kent and in Renton. The Southcenter area has Taiwanese-owned shops, including Din Tai Fung, Kizuki Ramen, Boiling Point, TP Tea, and Coco Boba, among other new Asian businesses. If you see Taiwanese food, you know that Taiwanese immigrants probably live in the area," said Pan.
Another vendor at the Formosound market will be Champion Gourmet, a Taiwanese eatery located in Kent's Great Wall Shopping Mall. It will offer dishes like Taiwanese cold noodles, braised tofu, and pig ear. "I wanted to open a restaurant that values our community," said Champion Gourmet owner Annie Lin through an interpreter. She added that she enjoys serving the community, "especially the elderly customers [who] remind me of our elders back in Taiwan."
Robin Liao, Formosound's director, has headed up the collaboration and fundraising for this event with the Taiwanese Association of Greater Seattle, the Greater Seattle Taiwanese Women's Association, and the Taiwanese Junior Chamber of Commerce in partnership with A+ Love. Liao is also a musician, having played in gothic metal and melodic death metal bands in Taiwan.
"Music is a language with no boundaries or rules," said Liao. "Music is a good vehicle to gather people to address and advocate for human rights. [People can] feel what they feel with the music [and] listen to the lyrics."
Angah said she's listened to all the featured A+ Love artists in Taiwan. She especially looks forward to seeing music artist Enno Cheng (鄭宜農), who's a headliner in the festival. Cheng is a famous singer who came out publicly when she divorced her husband, who was another well-known singer. She's known as a dedicated and public advocate for the LGBTQ+ community through songs and writing. Angah said one of Cheng's songs reminds her that "we can gradually remove that 'not-okay' [messaging], be honest … and grow into being more authentically ourselves eventually."
Formosound Taiwan Music Festival
Aug. 29, 2–9 p.m.
Redmond Downtown Park
Got an idea for a South End story you'd like to see us cover? Let me know: Yuko.Kodama@SeattleEmerald.org.
This article is published under a Seattle Human Services Department grant, “Resilience Amidst Hate,” in response to anti-Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander violence.
We're building a newsroom rooted in community, not corporate backing. Help us raise funds to hire our first-ever full-time reporter and grow our capacity to cover the South End. Donate today.