Kang, Bûn-iá (江文也 Japanese romanization: Koh Bunya) was born in Tuā-tiū-tiânn (大稻埕) Taipei in 1910. His father was a successful businessman, and his mother was a fan of Lâm-kuán music and loved to bring him along to listen to live performances.
In 1898 and 1899, Japan forced Qing to sign two treaties that guaranteed Japan to be the only foreign influence in Fujian, and leased Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian to Japan, giving Japan actual control over most of the province, and Japan encouraged Taiwanese to move to Fujian and help with their administration. When Kang was 8 years old, his father moved to Amoy, and he attended a Japanese school for Taiwanese living in Amoy. A large part of Amoy was leased to Western powers, and there Kang converted to Christianity.
When he was 12, Kang’s mother passed away, and his father sent him to Japan for further education. His father wanted him to become an engineer, and he eventually graduated from Musashi Institute of Technology, but with the encouragement of a missionary, he also attended Toyo Conservatory of Music as a non-regular student.
Kang’s father wasn’t happy and cut him off financially, but Kang received financial support from influential Taiwanese people living in Japan, such as Iûnn, Tiāu-ka (楊肇嘉), and studied under famous composer Yamada, Kosaku .
Kang’s music career started as a prominent baritone, often performing in Yamada’s productions. However, after trips back to Taiwan, Kang was inspired to compose a couple of highly praised pieces, and that got him invited into the Composer’s League, where he met his second mentor, Russian composer Alexander Tcherepnin.
Kang submitted Formosan Dance (or Tanz Formosa), which he composed in 1934, for the Compositions for Orchestra event in the art competitions of the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
Officially, the Italian composer Liviabella and the Czech composer Křička tied for second place. Kang and Tocchi received the outstanding award, which was sort of like the third place. Kang’s composition put him ahead of 4 other Japanese maestros, including his first composition mentor, Yamada, Kosaku in the same event. Since the art competitions of the Olympics was cancelled after the 1948 London Olympics, Kang remains the only Asian to have ever received an award in the art competitions of the Olympics.
Alexander Tcherepnin in the meantime married a Chinese pianist Lee Hsien-ming, and often invited Kang to tour in China. After Japan occupied Beijing in 1937, Kang was invited to compose for a propaganda movie Toyo Hewa no Michi. This eventually landed him a teaching position at Beijing Normal University.
When WW2 ended, and Taiwanese lost their Japanese citizenship, Kang was tried as a collaborator for having written propaganda music for Japan, and was jailed for 10 months. After his release, he went back to teaching at the Beijing Normal University.
However, when the CCP took over China, Kang decided to remain in China with his Chinese mistress, and that decision kept him away from his wife and children in Japan. Kang knew Taiwanese communist Tsiā Suat-âng well, and together with his elite status and collaborator background, all made him easy target for political persecutions starting from the late 1950s. He was stripped of his position at the university and force to do hard labor even in his 60s. Kang never gave up his passion for music though, and was still composing music about Alisan when he died in 1983. He never returned to Taiwan after 1943.
