Along with now being able to boast the first female president of a Chinese speaking nation, Taiwan can also claim the first Heavy Metal musician in Asia to win a seat in parliament. Freddy Lim, who fronts the New Power Party, aims to normalize Taiwan's status as a country and improve income equality. The 39-year-old death metal singer won his race by gaining just less than 50 percent of the vote, and defeating six other candidates. His new party also managed to grab four other seats in the legislature excluding his own.
Freddy Lim is the lead vocalist and erhu player of the award-winning Taiwanese metal band “Chthonic—, a band whose stated goal is to use their music to enhance cross-cultural understanding and to raise awareness around minority groups in Taiwan. Chthonic has won Taiwan's Golden Melody Award (2003, 2012), Golden Indie Music Award (2013), and The Presidential Cultural Award (2007) amongst others. The band has been described as both death metal and black metal, with some fans referring to them as the “Black Sabbath of Asia,” although that probably has a lot more to do with their popularity rather than their sound.
“We are a free market, a free country. There is no censorship on our music: you can promote any act in Taiwan, but there is a strong feeling of alienation, and people feel that the political decisions which are being made haven't been through any sort of democratic review process. Its not just students but a lot of citizens who feel politics have nothing to do with them. It is being decided by the president that China and Taiwan will come closer together — against people's will.
They don't necessarily want to be estranged from China, but they do want to exist as different entities. Four years ago, president Ma Ying-Jeou said he would never meet with the president of China, then he is there, shaking his hand, and without any consideration of the people's feelings. The people of Taiwan feel let down.”
I’m fully behind Mr. Lim and what he stands for. Keep rocking Freddy. Catch an interview with Freddy below as well as a couple of Chthonics awesome vids.
