Orbiting and down-to-earth: A conversation with lim giong about his music, art, and mind

For those familiar with the Taiwan pop music scene of the 1980s and 1990s, Lim Giong (Lin Chiang) (1964-) is primarily known as the rock singer who toppled the Mandarin hegemony of the local music industry when it was at the height of its popularity. His first Taiyu pop-rock album, Marching Forward (1990), shot through Taiwan’s post-martial-law society like a thunderbolt, resonating in an atmosphere charged by massive political upheaval. But that’s not why we interviewed him for this final chapter. Rather, we sought him out because Lim’s truly unique trajectory from the 1990s up to the current moment in the late 2010s demonstrates the diversity of creative directions available in Taiwan to a musician not content to work within the system.