A child of Taiwan's New Wave cinema, award-winning cinematographer En Chen (陳懷恩) has been a long-term collaborator of Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢) and has worked with acclaimed directors such as Chang Tso-chi (張作驥) and Cheng Wen-tang (鄭文堂) since the 1980s.
After more than 20 years of working at the center of Taiwan's film industry, the veteran cinematographer has decided to tell a story of his own with a scanty government subsidy and lots of supports from friends and money of his own. The end result is his feature debut Island Etude (練習曲), a road movie about Taiwan's past and present, it's beauty and sorrow and the stories of its inhabitants.
With guest appearances by novelist, playwright and filmmaker Wu Nien-jen (吳念真), theater veterans Deng An-ning (鄧安寧) and Yang Li-ying (楊麗音), TV personality Hsu Hsiao-shun (許效舜), musician Kimbo Hu (胡德夫) and others, the film is centered on a hearing-impaired college student named Ming-hsiang and the people and their stories he encounters during his seven-day, round-the-island bike trip. He travels through the scenic seaside landscape in Hulien (花蓮) and along the western coastal highway, passes through the Matsu pilgrimage (媽祖遶境) and a protest by elderly female workers protesting the unannounced closure of the factory in which they had worked for lifetime. The film takes audiences deep into the corners of the country and presents intimate portraits of people from different cultural, social and ethnic backgrounds, all of whom have their own stories to tell.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF CHI FEI FILM
As the writer, cinematographer and director, Chen makes a genuine effort to share his affection for the island and its people. The narrative is carried through Ming-hsiang's travels through different places, with the natural environment playing an important role and give the piece an unique rhythm and texture. In tune with the New Wave look and spirit, the travelogue ingenuously mixes history, myth, folk memories and contemporary issues of the country and its people.
Though some sections of the film seem over-produced and some less than articulate and rather dull, director Chen pulls off a human story about this diverse country. As the real-life round-the-island biker who inspired Chen to make the film said: "there is something that if you don't do it now, you will never do it for the rest of your life." Chen has certainly grasped the chance to realize his dream and has done a commendable job.
PHOTO: COURTESY OF CHI FEI FILM
June 2 to June 8 Taiwan’s woodcutters believe that if they see even one speck of red in their cooked rice, no matter how small, an accident is going to happen. Peng Chin-tian (彭錦田) swears that this has proven to be true at every stop during his decades-long career in the logging industry. Along with mining, timber harvesting was once considered the most dangerous profession in Taiwan. Not only were mishaps common during all stages of processing, it was difficult to transport the injured to get medical treatment. Many died during the arduous journey. Peng recounts some of his accidents in
“Why does Taiwan identity decline?”a group of researchers lead by University of Nevada political scientist Austin Wang (王宏恩) asked in a recent paper. After all, it is not difficult to explain the rise in Taiwanese identity after the early 1990s. But no model predicted its decline during the 2016-2018 period, they say. After testing various alternative explanations, Wang et al argue that the fall-off in Taiwanese identity during that period is related to voter hedging based on the performance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Since the DPP is perceived as the guardian of Taiwan identity, when it performs well,
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on May 18 held a rally in Taichung to mark the anniversary of President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20. The title of the rally could be loosely translated to “May 18 recall fraudulent goods” (518退貨ㄌㄨㄚˋ！). Unlike in English, where the terms are the same, “recall” (退貨) in this context refers to product recalls due to damaged, defective or fraudulent merchandise, not the political recalls (罷免) currently dominating the headlines. I attended the rally to determine if the impression was correct that the TPP under party Chairman Huang Kuo-Chang (黃國昌) had little of a
At Computex 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) urged the government to subsidize AI. “All schools in Taiwan must integrate AI into their curricula,” he declared. A few months earlier, he said, “If I were a student today, I’d immediately start using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini Pro and Grok to learn, write and accelerate my thinking.” Huang sees the AI-bullet train leaving the station. And as one of its drivers, he’s worried about youth not getting on board — bad for their careers, and bad for his workforce. As a semiconductor supply-chain powerhouse and AI hub wannabe, Taiwan is seeing
RSS