Difang and Igay Duana
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Difang Duana (1921–2002) and Igay Duana (1922–2002), Chinese names Kuo Ying-nan (郭英男) and Kuo Hsiu-chu (郭秀珠), were an Amis husband-and-wife folk music duet from Taiwan who specialized in traditional Amis chants. They are internationally known for their performance of a traditional Amis Palang song, alternately called "Weeding and Paddyfield Song No. 1", "Elders' Drinking Song", and "Jubilant Drinking Song", which was plagiarized by the French government and EMI for the hit single Return to Innocence.
The Duanas' primary source of income came from farming.
In 1988 Difang and Igay went to France to sing on a tour. They and roughly 30 other aboriginal Taiwanese artists were paid $15 a day for this privilege. Their performances were recorded without their knowledge by the Maison des Cultures du Monde (Institute for World Cultures), part of the French Ministère de L'éducation Nationale (National Education Ministry) and put onto an "anonymous" compilation of "Taiwanese aboriginal songs". The French government then sold the recording, again without permission or public announcement, to EMI. EMI allowed Enigma to use the recording as a sample track for their song, which was used to promote the 1996 Summer Olympics. After the Taiwanese press identified them they were given a contract with Magic Stone, a subsidiary of indie label Rock Records, the recording company behind Cheer Chen and other popular Taiwanese singers. However, their achievement was only known inside Taiwan; internationally the song was still thought to be Enigma's work.
While the couple were pleased with Enigma's editing, they asked EMI to acknowledge the contribution of both the Amis' song and the Duanas' performance, and asked whether they could sing the song at the opening of the Olympics. EMI ignored them. Magic Stone's lawyer then contacted a law firm named Dewey Ballantine in the United States to negotiate a legal suit. The suit against EMI was settled out of court in July of 1999. The couple won a small settlement which they used to set up a scholarship fund for Amis children. Magic Stone's attorney also won a suit against the French government, but the government insisted on giving the money to a French folk art foundation in trust; it did not find its way back to the Duanas.
In response to these lawsuits, a local Taiwanese recording industry representative, from the Association of Recording Copyright Owners, said that folk music was in the public domain and aboriginal people who performed, or arranged, it could not claim any copyright on it.
Magic Stone Records collaborated with Dan Lacksman of Enigma's competitor Deep Forest to mix a record-topping ethnic electronica CD, Circle of Life, released under the artist name "Difang" but which contains music from both Difang and his wife Igay. This was followed with Across the Yellow Earth in 2001, but Difang died soon after its release.
[edit] Discography
- Uncredited ("anonymous") recording in Polyphonies vocales des aborigènes de Taïwan, Ministère de l'éducation nationale, 1988
- Circle of Life, Magic Stone Records, 1998 (reached No. 1 in Japan and Taiwan)
- Across the Yellow Earth, Magic Stone Records, 2001
[edit] References
- T. Taylor, "A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery". In René T A Lysloff (ed.), Music and Technoculture, Weslyan University Press 2003. ISBN 0819565148
