Hou Dejian

Hou Dejian (Chinese: 侯德健; pinyin: Hóu Déjiàn; Wade–Giles: Hou Te-Chien, Cantonese: Hau Dak-gin), born October 1, 1956, is a songwriter, composer, and singer from Taiwan.

Since the 1980s, his songs have been popular in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. His songs are written mostly in Chinese, with a few in English. The lyrics often reflect traditional Chinese thought, combined with a contemporary mentality.

In 1978, Hou Dejian wrote a song entitled "Descendants of the Dragon" (《龍的傳人》), with which he gained significant popularity. He left Taiwan for mainland China in 1983, despite the ban for the visit from the Republic of China government on Taiwan. He then witnessed and became a part of the hunger strike with three others in the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 pro-democracy movement in Beijing.

On June 2 Liu Xiaobo, Zhou Duo, and Gao Xin joined Hou Dejian in Tiananmen Square to announce their hunger strike in support of the student movement. A popular singer in China, Hou Dejian stated “music played a very important role during the movement. When someone takes part in a rock concert, that kind of crazy feeling is all about self-liberation and about self-expression.” Together, the “four gentlemen” wrote a declaration that urged the Chinese people to uphold their “duty as responsible citizens” by sustaining a “peaceful democratization process.” They declared, “in this combat of opposing political cultures, of character cultivation and of moral strength, the hunger strikers intend to use their wisdom and actions to make the government feel shamed, to admit and correct its wrongdoings.” The hope of the declaration was to create a transformation in government that would be rooted in democratic principles, rather than the authoritarian model in place. While the construction of the declaration was a means of encouraging the student movement, it also criticized the students for failing to follow the democratic principles they claimed to value. This announcement from Hou Dejian and the others troubled high-ranking officials within the party, playing a definitive role in the government’s decision on June 3 to approve a violent crackdown.

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