The new Taiwanese cinema, which developed in the 1980s, is known among many for introdcuing a new style in Chinese-language filmmaking, for it diverted from the fantasy, fiction-based martial arts dramas and romances and used a realistic style. Directors like Edward Yang (
So in this celluloid history of Taiwanese society, what are the views of women and what struggles did they face when Taiwan morphed from an agriculture society into a modern one? These are the questions asked by Jane Yu (
"Jane had this question: Why were women's films all made by men?" Peng said. "This was the main reason we wanted to re-examine the old films." Many of the nine films selected here are adapted from successful literary works, written by female novelists, such as Woman of Wrath (
Female novelists at that time were aware of women's plight in a changing society. Most of them had a Western education. They observed their mother's generation and compared it to their own, putting the reflections of those different women's lives into their works. However, it was the directors who got all the credit for these films, and little attention was paid to the meaning and impact of the stories.
Women's desires, women's fate in traditional society and women's changing roles in society are the subjects of the festival's nine films. The first is Jade Love (
Ah Fei and A Flower in the Rainy Night (
A Flower is an ode to a woman's strength and perseverance from being a prostitute since her teenage days to escaping the brothels, being deserted by her family and becoming a determined mother.
Hou Hsiao-hsien's nostalgic movie The Time to Live and the Time to Die (
The most urban and dramatic among the films is Woman of Wrath, about the vengeance of women. A butcher husband, a repressed woman, an exploitive sexual relationship between the couple and a peeping widow who spreads gossip and superstition all around town all lead to a brutal murder by an insane woman, who chops the husband's body to pieces and throws it into the river. The film is an extreme protest against male chauvinism.
What: Re-discovering Women: Women in New Taiwan Cinema
When: July 19 to July 21, 10:30am to
8:30pm
Where: School of Continuing Education, B1, 231 Chienkuo S. Rd., Sec. 2 (
Tickets: NT$100 tickets can be purchased at the School of Continuing Education.
Tel: (02) 2700-5858 ext 1, (02) 0800-008-918 or visit http://www.cec.pccu.edu.tw/movie/women for more information
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
Relations between Taiwan and the Czech Republic have flourished in recent years. However, not everyone is pleased about the growing friendship between the two countries. Last month, an incident involving a Chinese diplomat tailing the car of vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) in Prague, drew public attention to the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) operations to undermine Taiwan overseas. The trip was not Hsiao’s first visit to the Central European country. It was meant to be low-key, a chance to meet with local academics and politicians, until her police escort noticed a car was tailing her through the Czech capital. The
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless