In the 1990s, Taiwan's music industry surpassed Hong Kong's to become the global engine of Chinese pop. But the last decade has seen a different trend: the mushrooming of Taiwanese independent music.
Next weekend Taiwan Calling 2011 - a two-day festival of 19 acts at the Kowloon Bay International Trade and Exhibition Centre - will showcase the variety of Taiwan's indie scene, from singers who have burst onto commercial radio, such as Sandee Chan and Waa Wei, to the island's best rock bands, including Sugar Plum Ferry and Macbeth. It will also try to deliver that rarest of rarities: an actual indie music festival in Hong Kong.
'There has never been an indie music event in Hong Kong on this scale,' says organiser Oliver Ching, a local musician and producer who's been living in Taipei and working in its music industry for the last three years. Last year he helped launch Black Market Music, a label which releases music by indie Taiwanese artists in Hong Kong.
For the concert he has teamed up with Taiwanese producer and session musician Wilikus Han and Chen Chien-chi, a Taiwanese singer and producer who has worked with Chan and Wei, as well as familiar names such as Karen Mok Man-wai and Faith Yang.
'Every year, lots of people from Hong Kong go to Taiwanese festivals like Spring Scream or Simple Life, and that's because there are no real music festivals here,' says Ching. 'When Hongkongers go to those Taiwan festivals, they're not necessarily even going for the music. What they want is to experience the atmosphere: lots of bands, people hanging out, vendor stalls and all of that. So we're going to try to do as much of that as possible, and also give people a full sense of Taiwanese indie music.'
Headliners such as Chan will be Taiwan Calling's biggest draw; the indie pop diva released a hit album, I Love You, John, in June and will drop another album through a collaborative project in autumn. But Ching is also banking on the depth of Taiwanese talent to give the festival real weight.