In the wake of an announcement this week that China is boycotting this year’s Golden Horse Film Festival in Taipei, several Hong Kong film companies have withdrawn their entries from the prestigious Chinese-language film awards, Hong Kong reports said yesterday.
The Chinese government in a short statement issued on Wednesday said that the China Film Administration was blocking Chinese films and personnel from participating at the festival.
Although the statement did not directly say that Hong Kong’s film industry would be affected, several Hong Kong production companies have announced that they will not participate.
Photo: David Chang / EPA-EFE
Among the films withdrawn from consideration were White Storm 2 — Drug Lords (掃毒2天地對決), Line Walker 2 (使徒行者2諜影行動), Chasing the Dragon II: Wild Wild Bunch (追龍II：賊王) and the animated film No. 7 Cherry Lane (繼園臺七號), Hong Kong’s Ming Pao reported.
Lam Kin-ming (林建名), the owner of Media Asia Group — which produced White Storms 2 — has instructed that no films made by the company are to participate at the festival, the newspaper reported.
Emperor Motion Pictures, which produced award-winning films such as The Beast Stalker (証人) and Operation Red Sea (紅海行動), said it would focus on China’s Golden Rooster Awards and Hundred Flowers Awards this year, and was waiving its participation at the Golden Horse Film Festival, Ming Pao reported.
The Golden Horse Film Festival and the Golden Rooster Awards are both scheduled for Nov. 23.
Hong Kong director Johnnie To (杜琪峰), who earlier agreed to head the Golden Horse Film Festival’s jury, had not issued a statement on the issue.
On Thursday, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) expressed support for Taiwan on Facebook, saying: “This year, AIT looks forward to supporting the US films being featured in the 2019 Golden Horse Festival!”
“Appreciation for the arts and support for independent artists are among the many values shared by the United States and Taiwan,” it said.
Asked if the AIT post indicates support for Taiwan amid Beijing’s embargo, AIT spokesperson Amanda Mansour said that the message “speaks for itself.”
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS