Taiwanese Enka music (臺語演歌)

Put on your headphones

I’m going to present a selection of Taiwanese Enka songs—a unique music style with deep roots in Taiwan’s culture and a loyal following across East Asia, yet one that remains largely unknown in the West.

• 臺語演歌 (Táiyǔ Yǎngē): combines “臺語” (Táiyǔ, “Taiwanese language” or “Taiwanese Hokkien“) with “演歌” (Yǎngē), translated as “Enka.”
• “Enka” (/ˈeŋkə/) derives from the Japanese reading of 演歌 as えんか (enka), where 演 (yǎn in Mandarin) is rendered “en” and 歌 (gē in Mandarin) as “ka” due to Japanese phonetic adaptation.

As you listen, I invite you to read my notes below, where I cover key aspects of Enka’s history and cultural significance in Taiwan. I’ll also highlight elements of its composition, instrumentation, linguistic characteristics, and vocal techniques. Through this overview, I hope to make you curious to learn more about and experience one of Taiwan’s lesser known cultural gems.

Playlist [on YouTube]

History of Taiwanese Enka

Origins in Japan

Today, Enka is synonymous with personal ballads of love and longing, yet this genre carries echoes of a bolder, more defiant past:

Not even five years after the Meiji Restoration [1868], [the Jiyūtō Movement] demanded a more democratic approach to how the government was run. […] At the time, the Meiji government had banned dissident speeches and protests about the new regime. So the Jiyūtō had to get creative in order to make their voices heard. Rather than use force, they found a roundabout way to make political speeches without breaking the ban: singing.

Enter Soeda Azenbo (添田唖蝉坊). Rising from the depths of day laborer life to become one of the most well-known ballad composers, he wrote songs about the government and society couched in satire and humor. These political activist songs merited their own sub-genre: soshi enka (壮士演歌). (Unseen Japan, 2019)

By the post-war era, however, Enka had evolved into a genre of rather emotional ballads, shifting away from explicit politics to focus on themes of love, loss, loneliness, and resilience through hardship. This transformation was a reflection of Japan’s struggles with identity and recovery in the wake of World War II, with lyrics that at times ventured into existential themes, including perseverance, despair, and even suicide and death.

Enka in Taiwan

In Taiwan, Enka has taken on a life of its own, shaped by a unique socio-political landscape and a conflicted sense of identity. In the 1940s, Taiwan had just come out of fifty years of Japanese rule, which deeply influenced its culture, language, and society. Yet, in 1949, the Kuomintang (KMT), the ruling party of China, retreated to Taiwan following their defeat in the Chinese Civil War, taking ultimate control of the island nation.

Under the governance of the KMT, Taiwan was positioned as a temporary bastion of Chinese identity, envisioned by the government as an extension of mainland China. According to KMT ideology, Taiwan was “a country without a home,” with a mission to one day return to the mainland and reclaim the “true” China. This perspective was embedded in Taiwan’s national narrative and cast a shadow over daily life, urging people to see themselves as temporarily “displaced,” with a duty to honor and remember their connection to the mainland.

During this period, Taiwan’s population consisted of three main demographic groups:

Indigenous people and “Original Taiwanese” made up the vast majority of the population while the “mainlanders” accounted for only 15%, though this minority held most of the political and administrative power. Their influence extended across government, military, and educational institutions, marginalizing běnshěngrén voices and shaping Taiwan’s political landscape for decades.

Amid this backdrop, Taiwanese Enka captured a deep sense of longing and collective loss. In Taiwan, the genre resonated not only with personal themes of love and nostalgia but also with a cultural yearning for a “home” many had never seen. Enka thus became an expression of a national sense of displacement, creating a musical space where the people’s collective memories, aspirations, and complex emotions about identity could coexist.

Refuge of Taiwanese language

Beyond its emotional resonance, Enka in Taiwan also became a channel for celebrating an identity that was distinctly local and pre-KMT. Unlike Mandarin, which was enforced as the official language by the KMT government, Taiwanese Hokkien was the native language for the vast majority of people, especially those whose families had lived on the island for generations. While sometimes dismissed as a dialect, Hokkien is a fully developed language with distinct sounds, grammar, and tonal qualities that set it apart from Mandarin.

Mandarin was introduced as part of a broader effort to assimilate the population under a Chinese identity. Schools, government institutions, and media were all required to operate in Mandarin, under strict penalties. In fact, many students during this time were punished for speaking Hokkien in school, as authorities tried to eliminate local languages in favor of Mandarin:

Meili Fang, a linguist specializing in Taiwanese who grew up in southern Taiwan, remembers being reprimanded in elementary school in the early 1970s for accidentally blurting out Taiwanese. “Sometimes you had to pay a little money or sometimes you had to give a paper but sometimes you had to stand under the sun which was very very hot,” says Fang. […] In many schools, the KMT even deployed “language police” to enforce the policy of only allowing students to speak Mandarin. Students caught violating this rule were cited, fined, and sometimes had to wear signs around their necks that read: “I spoke Taiwanese.” (Ketagalan Media, 2019)

Despite these restrictions—or perhaps because of them—Hokkien Enka songs surged in popularity as a “cultural refuge” where Taiwanese identity could be freely expressed. The songs became a subtle but powerful way for people to retain and celebrate their language and a uniquely Taiwanese sense of self, preserving an identity that was marginalized elsewhere.

Singing together

Enka’s influence in Taiwan was further amplified through the rise of karaoke culture, which brought the genre into the lives of people from all walks of life. Karaoke, meaning “empty orchestra”, traces its roots back to Japan in the 1970s, and its popularity soon spread to Taiwan, where it became a cherished cultural activity.

Since its origination 20 years ago, Taiwan has also picked up on the karaoke craze. […] Today, karaoke clubs and bars are one of the most popular forms of entertainment for the Taiwanese. It is difficult to travel through any city in Taiwan without being flashed down in the dark by bright neon lights luring passerbys Vegas-style. (Compass Magazine, 1998)

As Enka music had already been well received on Taiwanese radio and television, the karaoke boom of the 1980s gave people a way to experience the music personally, not just as listeners but as performers, providing a rare and meaningful opportunity to celebrate their language in a social setting.

Sound and style of Enka

Japanese Enka is known for its use of the pentatonic scale, a five-note structure common in East Asian music, which gives the melodies a flowing, open sound. For listeners, the genre is instantly recognizable with its restrained, intentional vibrato, smooth slides between pitches, and expressive phrasing—all techniques that enhance the music’s themes of nostalgia and longing.

[The Enka scale] originated from an older Japanese scale known as the Ryo Scale or Ryo Onkai in Japanese. Among the oldest Japanese songs that were believed to have utilized this was “Kojo no Tsuki” by Rentaro Taki […]. As it was also based on the pentatonic scale, this form of music also resembles the style of the blues. (YABAI, 2017)

Taiwanese Enka, while rooted in these same stylistic elements, adds its own distinct layers. The instrumentation in Taiwanese Enka often includes the erhu and bamboo flute alongside modern instruments such as piano, electric guitar, bass guitar, and synthesizers, producing a layered sound that complements the expressive vocals and reflects both traditional and contemporary influences. Sung in Hokkien, Taiwanese Enka gains expressiveness through the language’s tonal qualities and intonations, distinguishing it from Japanese Enka while preserving the core elements of their shared origins.

Melodic Writing and Pentatonic Scales

Unlike the seven-note major and minor scales typical in Western music, which use intervals that can create tension, the pentatonic scale has fewer notes, which gives it a simpler, more grounded quality.

In Enka, both Japanese and Taiwanese, the pentatonic scale enables smooth, stepwise motion, allowing notes to connect seamlessly throughout the composition. Short melodic phrases are frequently repeated with subtle variations, including grace notes and pitch slides, adding a layer of expressiveness without complicating the melody. This restrained ornamentation preserves the simplicity of the music while allowing each phrase to carry distinct nuances. Through these characteristics, Taiwanese Enka manages to reproduce the appeal of local musical traditions, where repetition and accessible melodic structure reflect broader cultural values and historical influences.

Vocal techniques

Vibrato is used selectively, typically added toward the end of sustained notes to create a soft, ‘sighing’ effect that adds subtle emotional weight to each phrase. This controlled vibrato is a defining characteristic, bringing out nuances like yearning or introspection. Another key technique is portamento, or sliding between pitches, which gives each phrase a gentle tension and release, adding fluidity and warmth to the melodies.

Dynamic shifts are also central to Enka vocals, with singers varying intensity within phrases. A note might start softly, build in strength, and then fade, creating waves that mirror the lyrics’ emotional content and enhance the storytelling aspect. Breath control further shapes this style, with singers usually ending phrases on breathy, elongated notes that create a conversational flow and a sense of closeness with the listener.

But wait, there is more!

Despite notable similarities, not all “old-fashioned” Hokkien music is Enka. One song I particularly enjoy is “Wandering to Taipei” (流浪到台北 / Liú Làng Dào Tái Běi) by Hsi-Tien Huang (黃西田). It showcases similar vocal techniques and incorporates Hokkien’s unique vocabulary and intonation, yet, unlike Enka’s characteristic slow tempo and dramatic melodies, “Wandering to Taipei” adopts a more contemporary arrangement. The instrumentation is more varied, upbeat and modern, following a typical pop structure (see also: Mandopop) rather than Enka’s traditional, restrained accompaniment.

Diving deeper into this sub-genre of Taiwanese “Schlager” would be a topic for another time.

A personal note

I come from Leipzig, the world capital of music sheet printing, so perhaps I’m a bit spoiled and unreasonable. But I think it is a bit tragic, really, that there is nowhere online to learn how to sing Taiwanese or Japanese Enka with proper notation. We are left with somewhat cheaply made (yet, oh so adorable) karaoke videos that just flash the lyrics while the melody floats by, leaving us to guess the finer points of every note.

Until my dream library of Taiwanese Enka sheet music appears, feel free to explore the playlist I’ve put together, embedded at the top of this article. Please also take a look at the sources and links throughout this article to discover more about Taiwan’s music, culture and history.

If you come across any great songs, albums, playlists, or scheduled concerts, please send me your recommendations. You can also comment on this thread I opened on the Taiwan subreddit:

• Best (or favorite) Enka songs? [reddit.com]

I am looking forward to your feedback!