Japan: Taiwanese chorus music to the ears

A video of an auditorium in Taiwan featuring 258 Taiwanese people watching and singing along (in Japanese) to the lyrics of Japanese anime songs became a hit in Japan earlier this week [Ja] after it was uploaded to Nico Nico Douga, a popular video sharing website. Within three days of the upload the video had been viewed over 120,000 times and had attracted nearly as many comments [Ja], the majority of them featuring Japanese singing the praises of Taiwan and Taiwanese people.


Original video


Chorus watching and singing along to the video at National Central University in Taiwan

Blogger morecom wrote of the event right after it was uploaded:

別に誰も相手の事を思いやったわけでもないのに、結果的にお互いが好印象を与え合ってるっていう話。

This was a case in which, although neither party was thinking of the other side in their actions, the result was nonetheless that each developed a more favourable impression of the other.

[…]

この動画は台湾の中央大学というところで台湾の人が組曲『ニコニコ動画』を258人で歌ってる動画です。これはすごい。
中には別に歌ってない人もいるから258人が同時に歌ってるわけではないと思うけど、これだけ大人数で歌ってるのは日本でもないんじゃないかな。

The movie was shot at the National Central University [and features] 258 Taiwanese singing the “Nico Nico Douga” suite. It's amazing.
In the movie there are also people who are not actually singing, so this is not to say that all 258 people were singing, but all the same even in Japan I don't think you could find people in such a large number singing together.

でも何よりこの動画がすごいと思ったのは別にこの台湾の人は誰かのために何かをしたわけではなく、自分達が面白い、楽しいと思ったことをしただけなのに、それが結果的に私達日本人が台湾の人を好きになれる動画になってるってところ。
こんな動画を見せられて台湾の人を嫌いになるなんて人はいませんよ。「この台湾の人たちも私達と同じように日本のアニメやゲーム、そしてニコニコ動画が好きなんだなぁ」なんて感じで好意を持つことはあっても「ふざけるな」なんて思う人は決していないと思う。

But more importantly, what I thought was amazing about this movie was that the Taiwanese did not do what they did for anybody else in particular, they just did it because they thought it was interesting and fun. And yet, the result is a movie that has led us Japanese people to admire Taiwanese people more, [this is what I thought was amazing].
Nobody could see this movie and not like Taiwanese people. “Taiwanese people are like we Japanese, they like anime and games, and also Nico Nico Douga” — I don't think there is anybody who feels these kinds of warm feelings but also thinks: “Stop messing around.”

台湾の人は歌いたいから歌っただけ、私達日本人は面白そうな動画があったからそれを視聴しただけ、それだけなのに台湾の人たちと仲良くしたくなりました。これってとってもすごいし、すばらしいことだと思う。

Taiwanese people sang because just they wanted to sing, Japanese people watched and listened just because they thought it was interesting, but even just this brought us closer together with Taiwanese people. I think this is really amazing, really wonderful.

[…]

それにしてもこの動画、再生数の伸びがものすごい。私が見た朝7時ぐらいの時点では再生数が1400、コメント数が2000ぐらいだったのに、今(9:23)の時点で再生数が9334人、コメント数が10731になってる。昨日の午後9時半頃にアップされて、半日ぐらいで一気に伸びてきた。多分今日のうちにどんどん伸びて、今日中にランキング(本日)で1位になるんじゃないかな。とにかく再生数もコメントも伸びが半端ない。

The number of playbacks this movie is getting is incredible. When I saw it at about 7 o'clock, there were 1400 views and about 2000 comments, but right now (at 9:23) there are 9334 people who have viewed it and there are 10,731 comments. It was uploaded last night at 9.30pm, and all at once, in just half a day, it has spread. Maybe by the end of today it will spread more and become number one in the (Japanese) rankings. Anyways the rise in the number of views and comments is enormous.

[…]

元々台湾の人には好意をもっていたけれど、この動画を見てますます台湾の人が好きになりました。私以外にもこの動画を見てそう思った人は多いんじゃないかな。動画の中のこのコメントが私が思った全てですよ。

From the beginning I had a fondness for Taiwanese people, but after seeing this movie I have come to like Taiwanese more and more. I think there must be many other people besides me who also saw this movie and felt the same way. The comments in the movie are all like what I was thinking.

In the comments section of the same post, two Taiwanese people who had actually attended the event gave their reactions. The first comment was posted on Oct. 21st:

台湾のDavid K. Narusegawaと申します。
実はこのイベントは先週、直接に参加し、歌ってしまいました。w
私自身は歌が下手なんですけど、このイベントを参加し、やっぱり思わず感動しました。
こうやって少しずつ台湾を理解し、そして好きになる日本の方が増えれば、公的な宣伝CMより何十倍の宣伝効果になるかもしれません。

Nice to meet you, my name is David K. Narusegawa and I am from Taiwan.
Actually I participated directly in this event last week, I was singing.
I myself am not very good at singing, but I joined the event anyway, and in the end I was really moved.
If the number of Japanese people who get to understand become fond of Taiwan increases a bit more in this way, then I think the publicity will be many dozen times more effective than any official advertising commercials.

台日友好を続けるように、そして平和を続けるように祈っています。

I am praying for the amity between Taiwanese and Japanese to continue, and for the peace to continue.

The next comment was posted the next day on the 22nd:

日本の方々がこのようなイベントをどう考えているのが気になって、ちょっと検索してみたら、この記事が出ました。 このような両国民お互い理解を深める機会があって、本当にとてもいいことと思っています。

I was wondering what Japanese thought about this event, so I searched a bit and this article came up. I think that it is wonderful that there was this kind of opportunity for each of our two countries to deepen our understanding of each other.

Blogger morecom responded:

おお!参加していた方からコメントをいただけるとは、ありがたいことです。
動画を見ている私にしてもなんかこう感動するものがありましたから、参加された方からすれば感動もひとしおでしょうね。

Wow! I am so thankful to have comments from actual people who participated [in the event].
As someone who has also seen this movie, and who was very moved by it, it seemed to me that those who participated were also moved.

仲良くしよう、なんてCMを見るより100万倍以上の効果がこの動画にはあると思います。

I mean I think that this movie is a million times more effective than any commercial saying ” Let's become closer friends”

こういった活動を通じてますます両国の友好が深まるといいですよね。

Through this kind of activity, I hope that the friendship between our two countries will deepen more and more.

1 comment

  • David K. Narusegawa

    Hello. It is David K. Narusegawa.
    I found this article from Google, and I am suprised that my comment was translated to English.
    By the way, I really think that was the good event, and I hope there will be more and more people to know about our country -Taiwan.

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