Following the success of the Chinese mainland internet sensation “Seeking Buddha,” the recent hit “Rakshasa Sea City” by Dao Lang has also gained traction in Taiwan, prompting local media to reflect on the situation. Taiwan’s United Daily News published a commentary stating that the lyrics of “Rakshasa Sea City” depict the current state of Taiwan, characterized by illusions and chaos, akin to the “Rakshasa Country”. It bluntly criticizes the political and industrial sectors on the island, noting a significant presence of unscrupulousness and fraud.
The song has resonated with netizens in Taiwan, with some angrily writing that the lyrics aptly criticize the Democratic Progressive Party. They suggest that Tsai Ing-wen and Lai Ching-te could take this as a direct indictment.
On July 19, Dao Lang, a mainland singer in his fifties who had been quiet for a long time, released a new album “Mountain Song Liao Zai”. The new song “Rakshasa Sea City” caught the attention and sparked heated discussions among netizens.
The song not only has a catchy melody, blending opera with folk tunes, but Dao Lang’s singing style also adds a bit of playfulness. Particularly the lyrics, adapted from Pu Songling’s satirical masterpiece “Rakshasa Sea City” from “Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio,” are a mix of metaphor and straightforwardness. The song, packed with humor, anger, and a sense of mystery, has not only attracted a large number of netizens to cover and interpret it, but also drawn scholars into the interpretation ranks.
In Pu Songling’s “Rakshasa Sea City,” a “Rakshasa Country” is depicted where ugliness is considered beauty and there is constant flattery and obsequiousness. Lyrics in Dao Lang’s “Rakshasa Sea City” say, “The horse doesn’t know it’s a donkey, the bird doesn’t know it’s a chicken, the railing always pretends to be elegant, the eunuchs have always been respected… He sees this Rakshasa Country always inverting, the horse loves to listen to the bird’s song, the rooster crows at the third watch… where did the pig and dog enter the painting hall, where did the shoe horn become the ruyi.”
The song not only topped several mainland music charts, but it also caught fire in Taiwan.
On July 30, the United Daily News in Taiwan published an article directly stating that “Rakshasa Sea City” is a mirror of the current chaos in Taiwan: “In Pu Songling’s ‘Rakshasa Sea City,’ he mentions sixteen words: ‘Flattering faces, worldly attitudes like ghosts, liking the habit of scabs, the world is the same.’ It tells that people with true talent are not used, but instead, some uneducated people go straight up. Whether it’s Pu Songling’s ‘Rakshasa Sea City’ or Dao Lang’s ‘Rakshasa Sea City,’ what they want to convey is to point out those who ‘do not choose means for their own benefit, twist right and wrong, and invert black and white,’ and doesn’t this mirror Taiwan today?”
The article writes: “Taiwan’s ‘donkeys and chickens’ are not a bit few, these years it has even intensified, there are too many undeserved characters: politicians seem to be studious and upward, but in reality, they have fake degrees, fake papers, and fake gold plating; high officials in the temple look like dragons, but in fact, they are little three, cheating, and sexual harassers; the ‘metoo’ incidents in all walks of life are frequent, many famous people have been unmasked one by one; officials and businessmen collude to use power to make dirty money, but grassroots people can only live on low wages, Taiwan with illusions and chaos everywhere, isn’t it another ‘Rakshasa Country’?”
On the political commentary show broadcast on Taiwan Zhongtian TV on July 31, Taiwan’s famous mouthpiece Xie Hanbing also mentioned this article from the United Daily News, saying: “Taiwanese people come to see (this song), it is satirizing the phenomena in Taiwan… because it is satirizing some strange phenomena in modern society.”
Some netizens in Taiwan stated that the lyrics directly indict the current authorities, “everyone is disgraceful,” causing the Taiwanese public to suffer, turning Taiwan into nothing but a shell, and Taipei City is the real-life “Rakshasa Sea City.”
Others lamented that since the Democratic Progressive Party took power, the officials appointed are all “donkeys and chickens,” these donkeys and chickens have messed up Taiwan’s economy and politics.
As of now, “Rakshasa Sea City” has set multiple records, breaking one billion plays in a week after going online. Reports said that as of 18:00 on July 30, the global online play count for “Rakshasa Sea City” reached 80 billion, surpassing the world record of 5.5 billion set by the Spanish hit “Despacito” released in 2017. However, the official Guinness World Records Weibo post on August 1 stated that they had not received an application, so the Guinness record was not broken, and said that “Despacito” broke the record for “most-watched MV on YouTube” (6.7 billion views, 2020), which was refreshed to 8.3 billion views by “BabyShark” in 2021.
It’s worth mentioning that not long ago, the mainland’s 2006 internet hit “Seeking Buddha” became popular in Taiwan due to the spread of short videos, which at the time led to Taiwan’s reflection on the cultural power of the two sides. The United Daily News in Taiwan wrote on July 29 that in addition to the “Seeking Buddha Wave,” a lot of street food from the mainland has popped up in Taiwan recently, and the conversation and internet language also have a “mainland flavor,” “if we think deeper, behind the Seeking Buddha Wave, does it subtly describe the shift of pop culture strength between the two sides?”