If history is sometimes made in small steps, sometimes by gigantic leaps, so the strong showing made by Taiwan's nominated film at the Oscar Awards ceremony was the result of many small advances and big steps for Taiwan creativity and Asian film-making. It is to film director Ang Lee's
It was a moment of joy throughout the country when Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍) won the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar and three other awards. There was a feeling of deja vu and a flashback to the 1970s, when Taiwan's Little League baseball teams won one "world championship" after another in the US. We only word to describe the mood is euphoric.
We congratulate and thank Lee and his colleagues for their efforts. They have significantly raised Taiwan's visibility in the international community and provided clear evidence of the progress Taiwan society has made in the cultural sphere in recent years.
From the years of former president Lee Teng-hui
Such dazzling accomplishments are no doubt the results of persistent efforts, made at tremendous costs, by people working in all different areas -- people like Lee -- in the face of extremely difficult situations. Ang Lee's achievement, like those of other outstanding Taiwanese, has highlighted the role Taiwan is capable of playing in international cultural exchanges. Taiwan has demonstrated, again and again, that it can make positive contributions to cultural exchanges between East and West.
As we all know, Taiwan has suffered endless blows from certain powers trying to block it from becoming a member of the international community, despite its cooperative attitude toward international affairs. However, such long years of political injustice and diplomatic isolation have not withered the will power of the people of Taiwan. On the contrary, the residents of this beautiful island, Ilha Formosa, have been able to fully utilize their intelligence and work political and economic miracles. Lee's impressive achievements in the film industry are the latest additions to these achievements, which will push Taiwan forward on the path to a cultural miracle. This, in fact, is a proper role for a country with a society, traditions and aspirations compatible with modern civilization.
Taiwan's overall performance today is an indication that the country is getting closer to modern civilized nations and that the people of Taiwan's pursuit of peace, self-determination and prosperity is in sync with that of the international community. How could anyone, it this day and age, ask Taiwan's 23 million people to place their burgeoning vitality in the unjustifiable grip of a communist regime? To be allowed to continue, unencumbered, on their self-chosen path is the pervasive wish of the people of Taiwan. For them, this is also the greatest significance of Ang Lee's leadership of the creative team that won four Oscars. In Los Angeles, in front of a worldwide television audience, the "hidden" dragon that is Taiwan roared for all to hear.
Congressman Mike Gallagher (R-WI) and Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) led a bipartisan delegation to Taiwan in late February. During their various meetings with Taiwan’s leaders, this delegation never missed an opportunity to emphasize the strength of their cross-party consensus on issues relating to Taiwan and China. Gallagher and Krishnamoorthi are leaders of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. Their instruction upon taking the reins of the committee was to preserve China issues as a last bastion of bipartisanship in an otherwise deeply divided Washington. They have largely upheld their pledge. But in doing so, they have performed the
It is well known that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) ambition is to rejuvenate the Chinese nation by unification of Taiwan, either peacefully or by force. The peaceful option has virtually gone out of the window with the last presidential elections in Taiwan. Taiwanese, especially the youth, are resolved not to be part of China. With time, this resolve has grown politically stronger. It leaves China with reunification by force as the default option. Everyone tells me how and when mighty China would invade and overpower tiny Taiwan. However, I have rarely been told that Taiwan could be defended to
It should have been Maestro’s night. It is hard to envision a film more Oscar-friendly than Bradley Cooper’s exploration of the life and loves of famed conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein. It was a prestige biopic, a longtime route to acting trophies and more (see Darkest Hour, Lincoln, and Milk). The film was a music biopic, a subgenre with an even richer history of award-winning films such as Ray, Walk the Line and Bohemian Rhapsody. What is more, it was the passion project of cowriter, producer, director and actor Bradley Cooper. That is the kind of multitasking -for-his-art overachievement that Oscar
Chinese villages are being built in the disputed zone between Bhutan and China. Last month, Chinese settlers, holding photographs of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), moved into their new homes on land that was not Xi’s to give. These residents are part of the Chinese government’s resettlement program, relocating Tibetan families into the territory China claims. China shares land borders with 15 countries and sea borders with eight, and is involved in many disputes. Land disputes include the ones with Bhutan (Doklam plateau), India (Arunachal Pradesh, Aksai Chin) and Nepal (near Dolakha and Solukhumbu districts). Maritime disputes in the South China