New Formosa Band () is a Taiwanese pop music ensemble. Its members include

Bobby Chen Bobby Chen (; born 29 October 1958) is a Taiwanese singer and record producer. Career Chen was born in Xizhou, Changhua County in Taiwan. In elementary school, he was the only boy who took part in a singing competition and represented the e ...

and Ayugo Huang. The group was established in 1992 and are important musicians in the genres of

Hakka The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhej ...

and

New Taiwanese Song New Taiwanese Song is a genre of Taiwanese popular music. It was first used to describe pop songs, often dealing with political themes or social criticism, that followed the History of Taiwan#Democratic_reforms, upheavals of 1989. ''Songs of Madness ...

. They released several albums in the 1990s which blended traditional Taiwanese

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

with pop elements. The group sang in both the traditional style of Taiwanese song (influenced by

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese ''

enka is a Japanese music genre considered to resemble traditional Japanese music stylistically. Modern ''enka'', however, is a relatively recent musical form, which adopts a more traditional musical style in its vocalism than ''ryūkōka'' music, p ...

'') and in a more modern pop style, as well as employing the dialect of the

Hakka people The Hakka (), sometimes also referred to as Hakka Han, or Hakka Chinese, or Hakkas are a Han Chinese subgroup whose ancestral homes are chiefly in the Hakka-speaking provincial areas of Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Sichuan, Hunan, Zhe ...

.Wing Ying-fe
Taiwan
''The Rough Guide to World Music''. Rough Guides, 2000, v.1, p. 238. The group is also active supporters of politicians of Hakka descent.

History

The first album released by the band in 1992, "The Passionate Man", received attention for having both Hakka and Chinese vocals. In 2012, New Formosa Band won the 23rd Golden Melody Award for Best Group for their song "Eight Feet Open".

References

Taiwanese boy bands 1992 establishments in Taiwan Musical groups established in 1992 {{Taiwan-band-stub