CACrown ArchivesThe cinema collection
Menu
Research dossier · People & Ideas

Yang Hsien (singer)

musical artist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ11118213 ↗
Source-derived summary

Yang Hsien (Chinese: 楊弦; pinyin: Yáng Xián; 2 September 1950 – 14 December 2025) was a Taiwanese folk singer.

Early life, education, and music experience

Born in Hualien, Taiwan, his mother was an accountant and his father served as the chairman of the Hualien County Party Committee of the Kuomintang. When Yang Hsien was four years old, his father died, and he and his mother moved to Taipei.

Yang Hsien attended college at National Taiwan University where he studied agricultural chemistry, during which time he joined the choir, which began his interest in music. Later, Yang Hsien bought himself a guitar, sheet music, and taught himself how to sing. He attended NTU's Institute of Oceanography for graduate school, and in his free time he would go to the Columbia Café on Zhongshan North Road to listen to singers such as Parangalan. In addition, Yang Hsien would also occasionally sing English songs on stage.

Folk music movement

The 1970s saw the decline of Taiwan's status on the international stage: the ROC was kicked out of the UN, and the United States severed official ties. Meanwhile, the youth of the island were still enamored with Western culture. In this environment, a self-awareness and appreciation of one's own culture began to slowly spring up.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Yang Hsien (singer)” as musical artist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Yang, Hsien and singer.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1950, 2025—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1950-11-02. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Yang, Hsien and singer providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Yang Hsien (singer)”, the useful work is to connect “musical artist” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11118213. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1950 and 2025.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Yang Hsien (singer)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Yang Hsien (singer) primary sources, Yang Hsien (singer) archive and Yang research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Yang Hsien (singer)”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
Subject index

Search terms from this dossier

Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Yang Hsien (singer)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.