A Chip Odyssey (造山者-世紀的賭注), Taiwan’s first documentary spotlighting its world-leading semiconductor industry, premiered nationwide on Friday after five years of production amid a turbulent global climate.
Chronicling Taiwan’s rise from being an underdog to becoming the central hub of the global chip supply chain over the past five decades, the film aims to “deliver the spirit of the mountain builders” — those who have helped propel the nation’s semiconductor ascent, director Hsiao Chu-chen (蕭菊貞) said.
Hsiao said the first time she saw the human side of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry was at a 2019 memorial service for Hu Ding-hua (胡定華), a pioneer who helped transfer chipmaking knowledge from RCA Corp in the US to Taiwan by sending young Taiwanese engineers there for training in the late 1970s.
Photo: Bloomberg
“I was deeply moved. That is where I first heard how the trailblazers of Taiwan’s semiconductor industry brought back the seeds of chipmaking,” Hsiao said. “What struck me was realizing how profoundly this shaped Taiwan — to the point that it has made the world pay attention to us today.”
Although once unfamiliar with the development of Taiwan’s chip industry, Hsiao, a two-time Golden Horse Award winner for Best Documentary Feature, said the idea of documenting that piece of history took root in her mind during the memorial.
The film features more than 30 people connected to the industry’s growth, including former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman Mark Liu (劉德音), and former frontline technicians and residents displaced by fabrication plants.
The interview that left the deepest impression was with Yang Ding-yuan (楊丁元), a team leader in the RCA program who broke down in tears while recalling the pressure they faced, she said.
“He said the former economics minister [Sun Yun-suan (孫運璿)] told them: ‘You are doing this for the country — you must succeed, failure is not an option,” Hsiao said. “I watched him tear up, saw how emotional he was... He had truly been carrying the national flag on his back all those years.”
“It is easy to say now that they succeeded, but imagine if they had not,” she said, adding that the moment made her “deeply admire” those who had lived through that era.
Throughout the 1970s, Taiwan faced immense uncertainty, including setbacks such as the severing of formal diplomatic ties with the US in 1979.
However, all of Taiwan’s “mountain builders” shared a deep belief in protecting the country and a willingness to give their all, Hsiao said.
“They believed that if something could make the country or society better, then it was worth striving for... I think that is the true spirit of a ‘mountain builder,’” she said.
Hsiao said she was initially worried that she might not be prepared for the film’s high-tech focus, given her humanities background, but later found that the most difficult part was the technology.
“It was the shifts in global geopolitics over the past five years and the pace of technological advancement — that was the truly terrifying part,” she said.
Since 2019, unexpected global developments have unfolded, including the COVID-19 pandemic, TSMC surpassing Intel Corp in chip manufacturing dominance, the rise of artificial intelligence and escalating US-China trade disputes, Hsiao said, adding that those shifts prompted her to adjust the main focus of the documentary.
“At first, I wanted to tell the story of this group of engineers, or the story of semiconductors,” she said. “However, as I kept filming, I realized this story is deeply tied to the fate of Taiwan itself.”
“In the end, what the film presents is Taiwan’s situation as seen through the lens of the chip,” Hsiao said.
Hsiao said she hoped the film would help Taiwanese audiences rediscover “the strength to protect this country,” drawing from the spirit of those “mountain builders.”
As for foreign audiences, she said she hoped the film would help them understand Taiwan — a nation with powerful manufacturing capabilities and global influence, built through “the hard work of its people.”
“We have worked so hard just to survive on the international stage and to make ourselves stronger,” Hsiao said. “I really hope they can come to understand how precious this nation in the Pacific truly is.”
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