Should experienced creators fear newcomers, or focus on passing the torch?At a music festival, Utsudo overheard a troll criticizing a veteran singer’s age, and she too has feared being replaced by the next wave. She realized that rather than being afraid, it’s better to pass on her knowledge and experience to the next generation so they can go further — which is why she launched her first online creators’ gathering.

Translated from Utsudo’s original Chinese column.

Snide remarks overheard at a music festival

　　Last time I went to the first day of the Pingtung Three Great Days music festival — definitely not to see Andrew Tan (x

　　The first performer was a female artist with the stage name Wawa (“Doll”). She was well kept, but you could tell she was of a certain age and had debuted long ago — the MV showed her youthful look when she first debuted.

　　She sang superbly and was great at getting the crowd going, but I heard someone behind me say: “Wow… she must be in her fifties by now, right? And she still calls herself ‘Doll’?”

　　Hearing that, I felt thoroughly annoyed. For one, he wasn’t listening to her hard work on stage; for another, his remark completely ignored her talent and effort, judging everything about her by appearance alone. Who does he think he is? Is this the legendary troll?

Fear of being replaced by the next wave

　　Honestly, we all grow old, and younger new blood will eventually join. As the saying goes, the waves behind push the waves ahead; being rotated out like this is inevitable. For me, of course, this rotation naturally brings unease and fear — after all, who can stay young forever?

　　Meanwhile, the stage had moved on to the next song. The singer asked everyone to light up their phones to illuminate the night sky, and the livestream camera projected the scene onto the big screen.

　　From the audience, I looked up at the livestream screen and saw those dots of starlight illuminating the night sky, while a singer younger than the previous one performed on stage. As the warm music began, it suddenly dawned on me.

Passing the torch

　　We’re heading toward death every second. Rather than fearing being swallowed by the next wave, why not pass the knowledge and experience we have on to future newcomers?

　　People in the past blazed a path for us; those after them made it wider and smoother; those after them planted trees along both sides. Accumulating over time, this created the wide, beautiful avenue before us.

　　Every life has its lifespan. A new life is like a blank sheet of paper; the knowledge and thoughts we accumulate vanish when our lives end, but by teaching we can pass them to the next generation, letting them go further and wider for us.

　　This applies to knowledge in any field. We are individuals and also a collective. On the long timeline, we’re just a short stretch of “history,” ultimately passing resources to the next generation. I think it’s fair to call this passing the torch.

　　That said, I’m not that great and don’t have enough resources. But as the creator’s path gets harder and harder, perhaps what I can do is share the experiences I’ve had or seen, along with my thoughts. I just hope this goodwill helps a little.

Our first online gathering

　　This time we held our first online gathering. Everyone was welcome to ask questions, and we pickedfunor moreconstructivequestions to answer, hoping everyone who came would take something home.

　　This event has wrapped up successfully. We plan to hold another novel-themed event with a different topic in July — everyone’s welcome to join then~

　　Below is the livestream link from that day — come check it out!

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Further reading (in Chinese)

• Previous: #79 (in Chinese)
• Next: #81 (in Chinese)
• Start from the beginning: #01 — Utsudo’s debut
• Column introduction
• Utsudo’s books

About the author

Utsudo is a Taiwanese light novelist and novelist VTuber with more than ten years in the industry and 40 commercially published print books. Her novel 《遺失的情書》 received a 2022 Ministry of Culture youth creative award. The 《嘿！聽說妳在鬼島當作家》 series records her experiences as a novelist in Taiwan.

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