The Beautiful Island

Formosa is a Taiwanese folk song by Lee Shuang-tze. The song was adapted from Chen Hsiu-hsi 's poem Taiwan by Liang Ching-fong and is among the most famous of Lee's works. After the song was first performed by and in 1977, included it in her 1978 album.

History

In 1980, the Government Information Office officially banned the song "Formosa". However, in 1990, the general leader of the Wild Lily student movement melodiously sang it.
In 2006, Million Voices against Corruption, President Chen Must Go and led supporters in a rendition of "Formosa".
On 20 May 2016, at the inauguration ceremony of Tsai Ing-wen as president, people sang the song along with her and Vice President Chen. There was a protest on this event on Facebook by the indigenous people of Taiwan, who felt that the ceremony was full of Chinese chauvinism.

Lyrics controversy

poet is Lee Shuang-tze's friend. After a long night of drinking, the poets began to sing. Lee said to him, "Brother, I just wrote a song. Let me sing it to you," at which point Lee then sang "The Beautiful Island." Monaneng then asked some questions about the song after he had heard it: "Why does the song mention Water buffalo, rather than the Formosan black bear?"; "Why say 'cut the tree' ? Our ancestors say one can't cut trees of nature." But Lee did not answer.