When Lin Jing-jie (林靖傑) turned his lens on novelist Wang Wen-hsing (王文興) for a documentary project, he felt like a novice standing before a martial arts master. He tried to enlist help from other authors in tackling the star of the film, but most “declined the offer with an awed look on their faces,” Lin said.
Those reactions are understandable. Wang, now 72, has earned a reputation as Taiwan’s most abstruse modernist author, despite the fact he has only two major works to his name: Family Catastrophe (家變), which was published in 1973 and is regarded as subversive and groundbreaking in content and form, and the two-volume Backed Against the Sea (背海的人), which was published 25 years later.
The Man Behind the Book (尋找背海的人), Lin’s film about Wang, is part of a six-film series titled The Inspired Island: Series of Eminent Writers From Taiwan (他們在島嶼寫作—文學大師系列電影), for which five directors documented the lives and work of six literary figures, including poets Yu Kuang-chung (余光中), Yang Mu (楊牧), Chou Meng-tieh (周夢蝶) and Cheng Chou-yu (鄭愁予), as well as female writer Lin Hai-yin (林海音).
Photo courtesy of Fisfisa
The ambitious project was born of a fire in 2008 that engulfed much of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre’s (雲門舞集) studio in Bali (八里) District, New Taipei City. The blaze prompted Pegatron Corp (和碩) chairman Tung Tsu-hsien (童子賢) to take action to preserve Taiwan’s artistic heritage. Two years of negotiations and more than NT$15 million in funding later, some of Taiwan’s most celebrated literary figures were immortalized on film.
As most of the authors were driving forces in the poetry movement that flourished between 1950 and 1970, the films offer a window into an exciting age in Taiwanese literature. The zeitgeist of the era is reflected through personal histories and anecdotes, and the documentaries serve as references and footnotes to one another, synergistically building up the bigger picture.
In The Man Behind the Book, Lin Jing-jie uses animation and theatrical performances to bring to life Wang’s novels and probe the author’s tempestuous inner world. The documentary, which is easily accessible to those who may not know anything about the author, includes interviews and commentary from young writers.
Photo courtesy of Fisfisa
Images of the novelist writing in his cell-like study reveal why Wang produces only 35 characters a day. He lashes out violently on pieces of paper with a pen as if he were sculpting words, not writing them.
It’s telling that the film only shows Wang performing a reenactment of writing in his study; the purist says he can’t work with even the slightest interruption — in this case, a small digital camera on a tripod.
“I held myself in check a little to be photogenic. The reality is 10 times more violent than what you see in the film,” Wang told the audience at a question-and-answer session held after the film’s premiere earlier this month. “I write this way exactly because I can’t write, not even one word, but feel even worse if I don’t write anything at all.”
Photo courtesy of Fisfisa
The affable relationship between Lin Jing-jie and Wang is the subject of envy for veteran filmmaker Chen Huai-en (陳懷恩), who spent
a year and half documenting Yu, but was
unable to observe the poet in an up-close and personal manner.
Photo courtesy of Fisfisa
“At his age [82], Yu focuses his energy on his works and cares less about the outside world ... He thought making a documentary would be like an interview that could be done in a day. Most of the time, he would say, ‘Okay, I think that is enough for the day,’” Chen explained.
The fact that Yu is a widely studied poet with more than 50 titles to his name heightened Chen’s anxiety. But the resulting documentary, The Untrammeled Traveler (逍遙遊), presents a refreshing take on the influential figure, who is portrayed as a traveler who longs for home.
For Home in Two Cities (兩地), filmmaker Yang Li-chou (楊力州) faced an even more difficult task as his subject, Lin Hai-yin, passed away in 2001.
Photo courtesy of Fisfisa
Noted for his narrative-driven documentaries, the director delivers an emotion-packed rendering of the writer and publisher as a doting mother figure who nourished a younger generation of writers and artists including Cloud Gate founder Lin Hwai-min (林懷民) and nativist literature figure Huang Chun-ming (黃春明).
The rest of the series is composed of Wen Chih-i’s (溫知儀) Towards the Completion of a Poem (朝向ㄧ首詩的完成) on poet Yang Mu, Chen Chuan-hsing’s (陳傳興) lyrical Port of Mists (如霧起時), which examines the life of poet Cheng Chou-yu, and The Coming of Tulku (化城再來人), the first biographical documentary on the 90-year-old Chou Meng-tieh.
The series is currently showing at The Ambassador Theatre (國賓影城) at the Spring Center (長春廣場), 176 Changchun Rd, Taipei City (台北市長春路176號). It runs through May 6. Screenings are mostly in Mandarin with Chinese subtitles. For more information, go to fisfisa.pixnet.net/blog.
Photo courtesy of Fisfisa
“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
Jade Mountain (玉山) — Taiwan’s highest peak — is the ultimate goal for those attempting a through-hike of the Mountains to Sea National Greenway (山海圳國家綠道), and that’s precisely where we’re headed in this final installment of a quartet of articles covering the Greenway. Picking up the trail at the Tsou tribal villages of Dabang and Tefuye, it’s worth stocking up on provisions before setting off, since — aside from the scant offerings available on the mountain’s Dongpu Lodge (東埔山莊) and Paiyun Lodge’s (排雲山莊) meal service — there’s nowhere to get food from here on out. TEFUYE HISTORIC TRAIL The journey recommences with
RSS