Jung-Chun Liu 劉容均

Introduction to PA Work

Public Address (PA) refers to a public broadcasting system. It's essential for amplifying sound to the audience in various events, from small-scale band performances and morning exercise broadcasts to large-scale sports events, concerts, and even religious ceremonies involving chanting and woodfish. The PA can be likened to a bridge, facilitating clear and precise communication between performers and the audience.

PA work is divided into several roles, primarily stage crew and sound engineers. The stage crew is responsible for setting up equipment and managing on-stage situations during performances. Sound engineers handle the soundboard and sound-related tasks, such as designing system setups according to the venue and adjusting sound parameters in real-time during performances.

Interviewee Introduction

Our interviewees are broadly defined as sound engineers. The first interviewee, Xing-Kui Chen, is an audio engineer and a freelancer. After graduating from Jingshan High School, he enrolled in the Electrical Engineering Department of National Taiwan University. However, finding no interest in the field, he decided to reapply and was admitted to the Nursing Department at the same university. During his sophomore year, he developed an interest in the PA field while working as an equipment assistant at the NTU Arts Center. He and a friend established the NTU Activity Center PA Group to promote PA knowledge. A year later, he dropped out to work at Tangsong Audio Company, where he continued to learn and accumulate PA knowledge. After leaving the company, he worked as a sound engineer at the well-known music venue Legacy and later became a freelancer. He recently started a production company specializing in audio system design and calibration, addressing the lack of professionals in this area in Taiwan's PA industry.

The second interviewee, Zi-Qiao Chen, a recording engineer and freelancer, was originally a student in the music program at Shida High School. He developed an interest in PA work during a club performance and subsequently got a part-time job opportunity with Giant Audio. After a few gigs, he decided to drop out of school and fully immerse himself in learning and working in PA. As a newcomer, he had to take on physically demanding tasks and eventually shifted to handling business for high school club performances. Despite being only a high school junior, he managed to build a good reputation and eventually had the resources to buy equipment. He rented a room in Sanmin, Nanjing, to experiment with and study the equipment, and after years of continuous learning and equipment acquisition, he established a recording studio at the age of 22.

Discussion Topics

1. Educational System

   Both interviewees highlighted issues with the current educational system in Taiwan, which does not support the PA industry, including higher and vocational education. There's a lack of systematic and professional courses, even in the few music and drama departments that touch upon the subject.

   The interviewees agree that in the PA industry, skills and abilities are valued over academic qualifications—"As long as you have the skills, you won't lack income." This reflects the goal of vocational education. However, Taiwan's emphasis on academic success has steered top scorers towards general high schools and universities, while vocational education is seen as a choice for those who are less academically inclined. This environment limits people's choices and leads to many discovering their true interests only after pursuing higher education, prompting them to reconsider or drop out. The imperfections in the education system make students take a longer path, facing family and societal pressure to reach their desired professions. Both interviewees dropped out to work in PA, using their unique experiences to show that if one spent the same amount of time working in their desired field, achieving such results wouldn't be surprising.

   During the interview, the interviewees let us experience equipment maintenance, raising the question: can such practical skills be developed in the vocational education system? One interviewee, postponing military service for work, enrolled in an electronics department at a university of science and technology, hoping to improve his electrical knowledge. However, he found the professors unengaged and the students uninterested, casting doubt on whether vocational education truly equips students with practical skills or if early work experience is more valuable. With the promotion of higher education in Taiwan, many vocational systems have transitioned to higher education systems, shifting towards academic orientation. But when the system is flawed or incomplete, the necessity and helpfulness of continuing irrelevant education are questioned, challenging the prevailing academic-centric mindset.

   In Taiwan, apart from the lack of formal educational resources in PA, it's also hard to access relevant information. Online searches mostly yield English tutorials, and learning often involves joining audio companies and learning from seniors in an apprenticeship model. However, this method lacks organization, making it hard to verify the correctness of knowledge and to learn while working, as it's not cost-effective for employers to teach hands-on skills while paying wages. Not only is the vocational system incomplete, but Taiwan also lacks good planning in various fields. One of the interviewees dreams of establishing a PA academy to address the lack of educational resources and integrate different PA industry sectors, allowing students to take courses in other areas and understand each other's specialties for better future collaboration.

2. Low Salary, High Pressure, Long Hours vs. High Achievement

   Having worked as a PA staff member for a NTU event, which involved working from 8 AM to nearly midnight, we initially thought PA workers might have specific thoughts on long working hours. However, both interviewees didn't have much to say on this topic. One interviewee acknowledged that long hours are a hard-to-change aspect of this industry.

   Firstly, since performance venues are hard to secure and renting them incurs costs, PA needs to set up the entire site in a limited time, unlike regular workers who have more time for construction and inspection. Freelancers can refuse overly tight schedules, but company employees, with expensive equipment capital held by the company, can't risk refusal and face the pressure of project timelines.

   Regarding the length of work hours, PA needs to set up equipment before rehearsals and can only start packing up after performances, often working from morning till late at night. During busy periods, workers might start checking equipment at the company from early morning, travel two to three hours to the site, and work there until midnight, not finishing until 3 AM, with another performance in a different city the next morning at 7 AM. For larger venues, companies arrange shifts, with setup teams working from 6 PM to 3-4 AM and rehearsal teams from 8 AM to 10 PM. According to Article 30 of the Labor Standards Act, a worker's normal working hours should not exceed eight hours per day, indicating that overtime is the norm in this industry. Smaller companies without shift systems allocate manpower per performance. Lastly, due to the nature of the entertainment industry, the busiest times often coincide with others' leisure times, especially during the Lunar New Year, leaving little time for workers to return home.

   In summary, PA workers are often in high-pressure, long-hour labor environments, but their salaries don't proportionally reflect their working hours. One interviewee revealed that only this year did his annual salary reach one million, previously fluctuating between three to four hundred thousand, while the average freelancer makes about five to six hundred thousand. If employed by a company without mastering sound control skills, stage workers earn even less after company deductions. The PA industry constantly faces a severe labor shortage, with capital-holding companies choosing to overwork employees without increasing wages, creating a vicious cycle of low pay and long hours that deters people from entering the field. Besides the nature of the work and capitalist exploitation, the lack of an educational system also contributes to the labor shortage. Most people choose the path of least resistance and apply for jobs related to their field of study. Without training channels, inexperienced newcomers are less willing to enter the industry.

   Despite these conditions, both interviewees expressed no complaints about their labor situation, optimistically noting that they also get days off. From their life stories, it's evident that they are passionate about their work, even willing to forsake the mainstream education system. In an immature Taiwanese educational environment with no systematic knowledge transfer in the industry, they proactively learned audio knowledge and became professional sound engineers. They identify with their work and believe that the sense of accomplishment it brings is irreplaceable by other fields. One interviewee feels that the immediate feedback as a sound engineer, evident in the music's enhancement, the audience's cheers and sing-alongs, is very impactful. The other believes that helping students achieve their once-in-a-lifetime performance experience is a driving force, along with his long-term goal of establishing an academy. In this field, they fulfill their self-actualization needs, with their labor results directly reflected in the performers' and audience's emotions and reactions. For workers, a sense of accomplishment is a key indicator of job satisfaction, and many studies show a high correlation between job burnout and a lack of accomplishment. If the job brings great satisfaction, the low salary and long hours might seem less significant.

3. Gender Discrimination in the PA Environment

   In the Public Address (PA) work environment, interviewees disclosed a significant gender disparity, with women being a rare presence and often not remaining long in companies. The physical demands of the job, such as lifting and setting up heavy equipment like speakers and stands, present a significant challenge for women with lesser physical strength. Despite this, in groups like the PA team at National Taiwan University, the gender ratio is evenly split, and many women show as much interest in sound control as men. However, few women choose PA as a career. In the industry, most start as apprentices and stage workers, and women aiming for sound engineer roles face physical challenges early on. Besides physical barriers, the field is plagued by severe gender discrimination and sexual harassment. Given that the industry doesn't require formal education, and women, being physically less suited for some tasks, form a minority, there's widespread discrimination and disrespect, openly expressed in behavior and language.

4. Stigma

   PA staff occasionally encounter unreasonable demands from performers, who may blame them for pre-show or performance issues, reflecting the performers' lack of PA knowledge and attempts to mask their own shortcomings. This situation is more evident in student clubs, such as performers blaming PA staff for a malfunctioning pirated backing track, even if they provide an emergency replacement with lower sound quality. This is one of the reasons for the stigmatization of PA workers. People often label and attack an unrelated and poorly understood group to maintain their own status and position.

   The term "PA brother" is commonly used for PA staff, though the interviewees believe this additional title is unnecessary as PA staff provide support and collaborate with performers in a service role. Sometimes, the compensation offered by event organizers does not match the PA workers' costs, leading to a reduced willingness to engage in emotional labor. This can lead to respect mixed with fear from the organizers, who might privately complain about the PA staff being "fierce." Organizers often have incorrect expectations due to a lack of understanding of the cost and service provided. They also frequently overlook the professional division of labor among PA workers, sometimes even paying with red envelopes, treating PA work as emotional and physical assistance rather than a professional service. These misunderstandings stem from a lack of understanding of the nature and content of others' work. In reality, current PA staff base their work on professional music engineering and system knowledge for planning and assessing performances and use this as the basis for communication.

   The interviewees' families initially did not support their choice of career, with one interviewee even mentioning that their family equated the job to being a "gangster" until their income stabilized. Furthermore, the interview process revealed that society tends to recognize and respect familiar professions like doctors, teachers, and lawyers, while unfamiliar ones are often belittled. An interviewee transitioning to a recording engineer role noticed a significant societal perception difference between "PA" and "recording engineer": PA is perceived as manual labor, while recording engineers are seen as professionals working in clean, bright indoor settings. Understanding the actual work of PA staff through interviews helps dismantle these stereotypes. Stigma often arises from unjust criticism and labeling of the lives of those we do not understand.