In spring 2009, Taiwanese Hakka singer-songwriter Lin Sheng Xiang released his third solo album Growing Up Wild, a collaboration with Japanese guitarist Ken Ohtake. The album’s lyrics, written by Lin and his longtime writing partner Zhong Yongfeng, have as their central theme Hakka women and girls and their experiences growing up in a traditional culture in southern Taiwan. The music, composed by Sheng Xiang (he often goes by just his given name) and performed by him and Ken Ohtake, reflects Sheng Xiang’s continually evolving and maturing musical vision, incorporating a variety of musical influences.

Sheng Xiang feels that his latest album, Growing Up Wild, is his best yet. On the surface it seems simpler than his previous ones, with the music consisting of only his and Ken Ohtake’s guitars, plus harmonica on a couple of tracks. However, the lack of other accompaniment is more than compensated for by the virtuosic guitar playing, which uses a wide variety of rhythms influenced by sources as diverse as Okinawa, Cuba, and West Africa. 

At 2009 mmf, Sheng Xiang is presenting songs from Growing Up Wild along with his new compositions based on the novels by celebrated Meinong writer Zhong Li He. It is also the first time he will perform publicly with a three-string moon guitar he has restored. Lin Sheng Xiang’s singing and the sounds of the moon guitar will lead you to the scenes and stories of the south.