From 1895 to 1945, Taiwan was governed by Japanese.  From 1896, music was one of the optional subjects in school.  The songs taught were Japanese patriot songs, and working songs.  Those songs came from traditional Japanese songs and Japanese translated European songs.   It was also in this time the western folk songs and classical music were introduced to Taiwan by the Japanese music curricula.

     In 1945, due to lose in the Second World War, Japanese returned Taiwan to the Republic of China, which was founded in 1911 after overthrew the Ching Dynasty.  Mandarin Chinese songs were used to educate various groups of people in Taiwan to identify themselves as a member of Republic of China and to teach them to speak Mandarin Chinese instead of Japanese, Taiwanese or any other dialects and languages.

The 20th Century Chinese Immigrants: In 1949, the government of the Republic of China moved to Taiwan.  The Mainland China became a communist country, the People's Republic of China.  Due to the civil war and the move, a lot of Chinese immigrated to Taiwan from Mainland.  These immigrants came to Taiwan with their regional folksongs, folk music, and folk operas.  Among them, the most prevalent styles are  folk song , Peiking opera and Chinese orchestra.  These two style are later  included as branches of professional school of music training. Also,some of those folk songs are included in elementary and secondary schools' music textbooks.