The Young Man Leading Souls

A self-taught instrumental maker, musician, and key figure in the long-established funeral folk custom in Taiwan called soul-leading, 28-year-old Lin Zong-fan has been fascinated by traditional Taiwanese culture since a young age.

In this episode, we discover what serendipitous encounter fuelled Zong-fan's extraordinary dedication to traditional Taiwanese culture; why Zong-fan feels his soul leading performance resembles Western grief counseling; and how Zong-fan's connection to the netherworld has transformed his family's view on death.

Host

Lin Zong-fan: Go to try or see things that I currently can't encounter in my own environment. At the actual moment we encounter such things we may not learn anything. But, later, in our life in our creative work or how we deal with things we may find a way to use such accumulated experience.

Lin Jun-liang: During the course of dinner he shared many insightful experiences that people like us from the countryside don't get a chance to encounter.

Lin Xin-hua: People working in arts and culture need to personally experience things by traveling to those countries and seeing works of art first-hand. That kind of resonance allows you to know the next step to take. So I think my brother should take his advice and go to take a look.

Guest

Ryan Hsieh:That scene of the whole family getting together is something that while growing up very rarely happened for me. Perhaps their economic situation isn't particularly stable. But they deeply love and care for their kids. In this day and age such family values need to be passed on.