The Nationwide Singing Contest: Chin Yun Cyan Rhyme
- Annalise Lin
Guest photo taken by Annalise Lin
Singing has always been one way for human beings to relax and express their emotions and thoughts. From small choirs to big competitions, singing plays an important role in people’s daily life. Speaking of competition, there are many famous singing competitions held by college students in Taiwan, including GoldenMelody held by NCCU, FengYun Awards by FCU, and Jing Shaow Awards by TKU. These competitions not only help students express their own feelings, but also help the music industry grow since several celebrities made their debut in these competitions.
Aside from the competitions mentioned above, there is also a singing contest held by Fu Jen Catholic University called Chin Yun Cyan Rhyme. It is also a famous and nationwide competition that started its history in 1977. It used to be a campus-only contest but then evolved into a countrywide one with the help of the Acoustic Guitar Club in 2014. Over the past few years, the crew has also added different types of activities such as workshops related to music-making and singing skills, and bizarre, which brings in more participants. In 2016, there were 125 teams in total participating in the competition; however, in 2020, there were 264 teams participating, which is indeed a great improvement. This year, the CEO of the Chin Yun Rhyme, Zi an Kuo, said in an online interview that the purpose of the contest is to provide opportunities for people who love music to perform on a well-designed stage. Many people who love to sing find no place to perform and show other people their passion to music, but Cyan Rhyme gives them a chance to do it. One of the participants, Travis Li, reveals that this year is his first time performing on an official and professional stage. “ I have learnedto play guitar for many years, but I never had a chance to perform on a stage before. This year, one of my friends who is good at singing invited me to come and join the competition, and that’s why I am here and also glad to be here.”
Chin Yun Cyan Rhyme is famous for its storytelling of presenting the topics. “ This year’s competition consisted of three stages, and we used sequential storytelling to present our topic. For example, the first stage is an open audition for a music demo. People can sign up for the competition and upload their singing recording segment on StreetVoice, a music platform, and the judges will go and check it. In this section, the crew promotes the contest by videotaping a story about a girl who participates in the competition alone to pursue her dream,” said Kuo. The remaining stages are preliminary and final. In these two sections, the crew pushes the story forward by releasing the other two videos about how the girl bravely stands and performs on the stage and even meets new friends who are also in love with music and sings happily together in the end.
Travis Li performs on stage, taken by staff
“ I think the concept is really interesting and realistic,” said Li, “ I did make friends through this contest, and they also invited me to join another singing contest with them. The most important thing I learned through this competition is that winning is never the point of participating in this game. The treasurable memory and enjoyable process of preparing and performing on stage are way more important.”
Final Competiotion photo taken by staff
“ From the very beginning, we have encountered many difficulties. The schedule is very tight, and we missed some of the sponsor projects that ended earlier than the previous year due to the pandemic,” said Kuo. The pandemic severely affects their competition in three aspects. The first one is in what mode they should hold the contest, online or physically. The second one is how to remain fair if the contest is held online because the differences between the equipment will definitely make difference in the quality of recordings. The third one is how to attract people’s attention and promote competition in such an unfortunate situation.
As the CEO of the 45th Cyan Rhyme, Kuo said in relief that he felt extremely stressed during the process of preparing for the competition, but he was glad that the competition ended up holding physically and everything went well and all the participants seemed to be satisfied and enjoy the whole contest. “ We have spent lots of time preparing and asking for help from many people like school sisters and brothers. The big success of the Cyan Rhyme is not only by our crew members’ effort, but I also want to thank the teachers, sponsors, school sisters and brothers for giving me a chance to be in this position and supporting us whenever we have troubles. Also, this contest will not succeed if there were no participants. As a result, I also want to thank all the participants for coming and joining the game.” said Kuo.
The history of Chin Yun Cyan Rhyme will pass on and always welcome people who love music and give themselves a chance to show their passion for singing.