During the 1970’s and ‘80’s, fishermen in one southern Taiwanese township would sing a song to help keep track of how much fish fry they sold. Today, we will hear from one of the few who can still sing the song.
Lin Shui-lai is one of the last who can still sing the “count fish song”, song once heard in Changhua County’s Huatan Township. The song was used during the 1970’s to 1980’s as a way of helping fishermen calculate sales of fish fry without losing count.
Singers count out units of five, adding or subtracting if needed.
Thirty years ago, there were a hundred farms in Huatan breeding fish fry. That meant a lot of fish fry to keep track of and a lot of potential singers. Lin said many foreign buyers would buy lots of 20,000 to 30,000 fish fry from Taiwan at a time. But the price of fish fry has since dropped, and there are fewer people breeding young fish these days. That leaves Lin Shui-lai as just about the only one who still knows the old counting song.