Taiwan Cicada Season: The 120-Decibel Summer Soundtrack Every Local Grew Up Hearing

Walk under any banyan tree in Taiwan between June and August, and you’ll hear it before you see anything — a shimmering, metallic wall of sound that peaks somewhere around 120 decibels. That’s louder than a chainsaw. Louder than a rock concert. And it’s coming from an insect the size of your thumb.

Welcome to Taiwan cicada season — the soundtrack every kid on this island grew up with, and the one every diaspora Taiwanese remembers the second they step back off the plane.

What you’re actually hearing

Taiwan is home to more than 60 species of cicada (蟬, chán), but the summer chorus is dominated by two headliners. The Taiwan bear cicada (Cryptotympana takasagona) — the big glossy black one — is the deep, throbbing bass note you hear from mid-June. Then the smaller Formosan brown cicada joins in with a higher, more electric buzz.

Only the males sing, and they do it by rapidly vibrating a pair of ribbed membranes called tymbals on their abdomen. Multiply that by thousands of males in a single grove, all trying to attract a mate at once, and you get the “shower of sound” (蟬瀑) that older Taiwanese poets have written about for centuries.

Why the sound feels so nostalgic

Ask any Taiwanese person over 30 what summer sounded like as a kid, and you’ll get one of three answers: the ice-cream truck, the garbage truck playing Für Elise, or the cicadas. For many, it’s all three at once.

Cicadas map onto specific summer memories — the long walk home from cram school with a sweaty uniform sticking to your back, catching them off tree trunks with your bare hands during summer break, watching your grandmother swat one out of the mosquito net at nap time. The Mandarin phrase 知了知了 (zhī le zhī le, literally “I know, I know”) is the onomatopoeia every Taiwanese child learns for the sound — and it’s why cicadas keep showing up in Taiwanese children’s songs, TV theme tunes, and Studio Ghibli-adjacent nostalgia films to this day.

Where to catch the loudest chorus

Cicadas live everywhere in lowland Taiwan, but the acoustics are wildest in a few classic spots:

• Da’an Forest Park (大安森林公園), Taipei — the city’s green lung, wall-to-wall banyans, easy MRT access
• Beitou hillside trails — cicadas plus sulfur steam is peak Taiwan sensory overload
• Alishan foothills — mid-elevation forests where the mountain species take over
• Kenting National Park, Pingtung — tropical south, longest season, loudest choir

Bring a friend. Try to have a conversation. Fail. Laugh. That’s the whole activity.

A tiny cultural footnote worth knowing

In classical Chinese poetry, cicadas symbolize rebirth — the nymphs live underground for years (some species up to 17), then emerge, molt, sing for a few short weeks, and die. Taiwanese poets adopted the same metaphor, but with a local twist: the cicada isn’t a symbol of fleeting glory, it’s a symbol of arriving loudly. Showing up. Being heard. It’s very Taiwan.

The takeaway

Next time you’re in Taiwan between June and August, step off the main street, find the nearest banyan tree, and just stand there for a minute. Close your eyes. That wall of sound? That’s summer, in stereo, from a species that’s been the island’s unofficial soundtrack for longer than any of its cities have existed. Some Taiwanese people abroad play cicada recordings on their phones when they miss home — that’s how much it means.

If cicada nostalgia has you missing Taiwan already, our Taiwan-themed apparel and gifts at Taiwan Merch are built for exactly that feeling — a wearable love letter to the island. And if you want another warm summer read, our guide to Taiwanese cold sesame noodles pairs perfectly with a cicada-soundtracked afternoon.