Rockers Stir Up Taiwan Despite Ban on Airwaves : Music: Poking fun at aging lawmakers and pro-democracy protesters alike, Blacklist can’t get on the radio--yet Taiwanese are all ears to their music.

A rock group that sings in Taiwan’s native language has taken this island nation by storm, becoming the first music group to criticize the Nationalist government in another sign of Taiwan’s increasing freedom.

Blacklist, a trio of two Taiwanese and one American, mouths its dissent with bold lyrics and a musical style that blends rock ‘n’ roll with the exotic strains of traditional Chinese music.

Nobody is safe from the band’s sarcastic lyrics, which mock pro-democracy protesters and conservative Nationalist politicians alike. Even Taiwan’s middle-class lifestyle comes in for a beating.

One song called “Democracy Bumpkin” from the band’s new LP makes fun of both the government and demonstrators. The tune begins with trumpets feebly playing Taiwan’s national anthem. An electric guitar cuts in.

The groups sings: “I stroll in downtown Taipei. Riot police block the street. . . . Suddenly my heart feels a chill. Tell me please, Mr. Policeman. Are we preparing a war to regain mainland China?”

The song criticizes elderly lawmakers who have occupied about half of the seats in the legislature since 1949, when the Nationalist government lost a war to Communist forces on mainland China and fled to Taiwan. The legislators have been frozen in office to support the Nationalists’ claim to represent all China.

“They are so old that they can hardly breathe. The government fears they may die anytime. So our tax money pays for their intravenous drips,” the song goes.

Government censors tolerated the band’s first album, “Songs of Madness,” released in November, 1989. But Taiwan’s government-controlled radio and television stations have never broadcast their tunes. The unofficial ban has hurt the band.

Nevertheless, the album has so far sold more than 100,000 copies to students and intellectuals, an impressive figure for the group.

“These are Taiwan’s most rebellious songs in 40 years. They are candid eyewitnesses of our time,” said Jack Liu, chief editor of the Audio Art monthly.

Joe Wang, founder of the Blacklist, does not seem to worry about the broadcast ban.

“We know some Nationalist authorities hate these songs. But we have to send out the message that people here are not happy with Taiwan’s politics and society,” he said.

Wang, 36, formed the Blacklist two years ago with friend Io Chen, a 29-year-old cellist. They were joined by Keith Stuart, 34, of Little Rock, Ark., who specializes in synthesizing and composition.

While most artists here refrain from offending authorities, Blacklist participated in Taiwan’s largest student protest in March to demand that the elderly lawmakers step down.

During the weeklong sit-in at a Taipei park, thousands of college students, outraged by the government’s slow pace of political reforms, sang aloud, “We won’t wait anymore,” an impromptu song dedicated to the protesters by Blacklist.

The government later agreed to retire all the aging lawmakers, mostly in their 80s or older, by 1992.

“Those old deputies are the most ridiculous phenomenon in the world,” Wang said. “But they are not to blame. The Nationalists made them absurd.”

Another thing that makes the group unique in Taiwan is their use of the local Taiwanese dialect, instead of official Mandarin Chinese.

When the Nationalists took power in Taiwan, they imposed the culture of the mainland on this island. Taiwanese make up about 85% of Taiwan’s population of 20 million, but Mandarin Chinese replaced the Taiwanese dialect in the classroom and students were penalized if they spoke the local patois.

Wang, a native Taiwanese, started writing songs in Taiwanese about five years ago when his grandmother complained she could not understand him over the telephone.

“I didn’t know I was a Taiwanese when I was young. I even took pride in my fluent Mandarin,” he said.

The band has met with much critical acclaim even from intellectuals.

“The music is very good with its originality,” said Hsiao Yeh, a prominent writer. “The songs grow from this land and show their concerns for the people.”

Wang might disagree.

“In some ways,” he said, “we are aliens in Taiwan’s pop music.”