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Chthonic - Vocalist Elected To Taiwan Legislature


Last month, we covered the story of Chthonic frontman Freddy Lim and his bid for a seat in the Legislative Yuan, Taiwan's national legislative body. The results from the January 16th general elections are in, and Lim's campaign was successful: in February, he will take office as a representative of the Wanhua and Zhongzheng districts of Taipei, Taiwan's capital city.

The band made a celebratory post on their official Facebook page on Saturday, as did Lim and bassist Doris Yeh on their personal pages. This action has been a long time in the making; ever since their formation in 1995, Taiwan's premiere metal ambassadors have made their strong sense of national identity and sociopolitical consciousness a central part of their image, employing traditional Taiwanese instrumentation and incorporating tales of Taiwanese history and myth into their lyrics. Lim's concern with social and political issues eventually branched out from Chthonic into direct public action; from 2010 to 2014 he served as the chairman of Amnesty International's Taiwan branch (a total of two terms), he is a board member of the Memorial Foundation of 228, and he has been involved in numerous protest and reform movements, including 2014's Sunflower Movement (which resulted, coincidentally, in the occupation of the Yuan by student protesters). Chthonic even converted their 20th anniversary celebration concert last month into a rally for Lim's supporters.

Last January, Lim co-founded and assumed leadership of the New Power Party (NPP), which gained enough momentum in the last 12 months to win five seats of 113 in the Yuan on Saturday; this makes the NPP Taiwan's third-largest political party. The party, which has become popular among Taiwan's younger voters, has constructed a platform based in human rights reform, government transparency, environmental protection, and education reform, among other issues. Most notably, the NPP supports the rewriting of the constitution of Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), to relinquish its claims to the Chinese mainland and assert the independence of Taiwan itself; the national status of Taiwan has been a highly controversial international issue since the nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) party under Chiang Kai-shek fled there from the mainland in 1949, after losing the Chinese Civil War to China's Communist Party.

Due to Lim's decidedly unusual background, his campaign has attracted a great deal of attention from Western media, including The Guardian, the BBC, CNN, and other news outlets. Certainly, not many metal vocalists can claim to have a constituency. While music-based journalists such as ourselves probably have as much right to discuss politics as CNN has to describe death metal, it is still quite fascinating to see a prominent metal musician branching out so successfully into uncharted territory. Obviously this means that Chthonic won't be as active for the foreseeable future, but hopefully Lim will be working for the good of his nation and making us proud to be associated with him, even tangentially.


Freddy Lim (center) and his bandmates on the campaign trail


Source: facebook.com
Band profile: Chthonic
Posted: 18.01.2016 by ScreamingSteelUS


Comments

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Comments: 14   Visited by: 132 users
18.01.2016 - 10:50
FYA
Destroyer
Lolololololo
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18.01.2016 - 12:12
MikeVonDoom

Well... whatever!
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18.01.2016 - 12:25
Arkona's Sigh

Good luck, Taiwan, I wish you the best! And rock, rock, rock!
----
I don't need your god! I just need my brain, my freedom, my love and my pleasures!
The darkness of my dreams are better than the light of your stake!
Nature is so great and your god, so little!
I refuse YOUR explanation of MY reality!
...
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18.01.2016 - 13:15
Gothmog_Motsham

What if he becomes the president Taiwan will be the first metal country and they will have a black metal national anthem
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18.01.2016 - 13:48
Karlabos
Meat and Potatos
Taiwan is going to grow more metal on these next years
----
"Aah! The cat turned into a cat!"
- Reimu Hakurei
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18.01.2016 - 15:59
IBlackened

Written by Gothmog_Motsham on 18.01.2016 at 13:15

What if he becomes the president Taiwan will be the first metal country and they will have a black metal national anthem


What about Indonesia's president?
----
Their old stuff is better.
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18.01.2016 - 16:23
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Written by IBlackened on 18.01.2016 at 15:59

Written by Gothmog_Motsham on 18.01.2016 at 13:15

What if he becomes the president Taiwan will be the first metal country and they will have a black metal national anthem


What about Indonesia's president?



First thing that sprung to mnd when I read his comment
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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18.01.2016 - 20:18
Gothmog_Motsham

Quote:
Quote:
What about Indonesia's president?



First thing that sprung to mnd when I read his comment


Holy shit I just searched it and found out! I had no idea! This is fucking awesome!
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18.01.2016 - 22:47
sbgmetal

Metal really can take you anywhere...
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19.01.2016 - 08:05
Cynic Metalhead
Paisa Vich Nasha
*fapping seeing Doris Yeh*
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19.01.2016 - 11:31
Spirit of dead

Good on him. I hope he sticks to his values and doesn't get corrupted by power like so many other once idealistic politicians.

Written by Karlabos on 18.01.2016 at 13:48

Taiwan is going to grow more metal on these next years



If they start pissing off the Chicoms with talk of independence and separation from China, that metal may well be Chinese bombs and tanks.
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19.01.2016 - 11:55
M C Vice
ex-polydactyl
Maybe the Norwegians should have gone into politics, instead of arson.
----
"Another day, another Doug."
"I'll fight you on one condition. That you lower your nipples."
" 'Tis a lie! Thy backside is whole and ungobbled, thou ungrateful whelp!"
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19.01.2016 - 14:54
Cynic Metalhead
Paisa Vich Nasha
It gonna be tough for him to give a time to his band.

Governments legislature, corporate affair, taxes and regulations will put him on test .
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27.01.2016 - 05:47
chomskeet

Shit, I'm so bummed I missed their most recent concert. Seediq Bale is far and away my favorite album of theirs. Good for Freddy/Taiwan though!
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