Taigi popular songs were created in the 1930s in colonial Taiwan. These songs, written mostly by Taiwanese composers and lyricists and sung by Taiwanese singers in Tâi-gí, became influential not only in Taiwan’s local recording industry, but also in the Nanyang market, where there was a significant population of Hokkien-speaking communities. These songs were categorized as Hokkien songs or modern Hokkien songs, a new genre used by record labels and broadcast radio from the 1950s onward. Some of them, such as the famous Longing for the Spring Breeze, were still heard and sung on contemporary television shows and getai performances, showcasing almost a century of sonic dissemination across East and Southeast Asia. These songs are vital to the collective memory of the Taiwanese/Hokkien-speaking people, yet their historical development in the early post-war era was often overlooked in studies of popular music.

This paper aims to discuss the travelling journey of Taigi popular songs in post-war Southeast Asia. By using Longing for the Spring Breeze and other examples as case studies, I shall trace the trajectory of these songs across sound media from the 1950s to the 1970s, and demonstrate how they were transmitted, transformed, and localised to adapt to the various entertainment in Singapore, Malaya and beyond. I argue that sound materials from Taiwan have been crucial in constructing and consolidating Hokkien popular music, and that the melodies of these songs have become part of the musical heritage of Hokkien-speaking communities. This study may also serve as a link for trans-regional research between East and Southeast Asia.