I love this book partly because I am one of the editors and it is a product of fun and passion over several years. The book originated from a screening tour of Taiwanese-language films (taiyupian) in the UK and Europe in 2020. The outbreak of Covid-19 pushed us to readjust our delivery, with many of our screening events forced online or in hybrid format. The timeframe of the screening schedules was thus postponed from the end of 2020 to early 2022. As the timeline of the project lengthened, new research on taiyupian was generated. I am both grateful and privileged to be able to work with many outstanding scholars to present this new volume that aims to mark a watershed moment in scholarship on Taiwanese-language cinema.
Taiwanese-language cinema is a vibrant, low-budget cinema produced in numerous genres ranging from melodramas, Taiwanese-language operas (gezaixi), martial arts and comedies to spy movies between the mid-1950s and the 1970s in Taiwan. They can be seen as presenting a view from the grassroots rather than the glossy official optimism of state-endorsed Mandarin cinema. Mostly shot on location rather than in the studio, taiyupian provide us with a rare glimpse of everyday Taiwan back then.
When the taiyupian industry declined in the 1970s, this once popular and substantial cinema was almost completely forgotten because the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) Nationalist government favoured Mandarin as a national language. Meanwhile, in the era of art cinema, low budget commercial films like taiyupian attracted little critical attention.
Fortunately, those attitudes no longer prevail, and by the 2010s, a new interest emerged both in and outside Taiwan. The Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute’s restoration and release of surviving Taiwanese-language films on DVD has reversed the negligence of this industry and rewritten the history of Taiwanese cinema over the last couple of decades. This trend was in line with global tendencies as cinephiles all over the world have become increasingly interested in recovering and restoring cinematic cultural heritage as part of social histories.
Taiwanese-Language Cinema: Rediscovered and Reconsidered (eds Chris Berry, Wafa Ghermani, Corrado Neri & Ming-yeh Rawnsley, EUP, 2024) is the first anthology in English about this long-neglected but now rediscovered cinema phenomenon. This anthology attempts to do justice to the complexity and diversity of taiyupian with chapters that examine a variety of issues, periods, genres, directors, and studios. We hope that it will deepen our knowledge and understanding of taiyupian and encourage scholars and students to reconsider what we thought we already knew about this cinema.
Taiwanese-Language Cinema: Rediscovered and Reconsidered presents diverse approaches to the vibrant commercial film industry known as Taiwanese-language cinema (taiyupian). After a long period of neglect, films are being restored and made available with subtitles.Taiwanese-language cinema was a cycle of over 1,000 dramatic feature films produced between the mid-50s and early 70s in the local Minnanhua Chinese language most commonly spoken on the island, also known as "Taiwanese" (taiyu). The rediscovery of Taiwanese-language cinema is stimulating new scholarship, both in Chinese in Taiwan and in other languages, which challenges our conventional understandings of Taiwanese film history and opens up new approaches…
Professor Robert Putnam's earlier book, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (2000), is brilliant. He argued that the ways Americans increasingly distanced themselves from community involvement over the past few decades - including decreased voter turnout, attendance at public meetings, service on committees, and work with political parties - has undermined the active civic engagement which a strong democracy requires from its citizens. I find his thesis convincing and relevant to so many democratic societies today.
Therefore, when I found out recently that Putnam published another book (with Shaylyn Romney Garrett) in 2020, The Upswing: How America Came Together a Century Ago and How We Can Do It Again, I bought it immediately and learned a great deal. In this age of hyper polarisation, confrontation, and exploitation, citizens have become more and more disengaged from not only political institutions but also each other. This sense of isolation breeds distrust, helplessness, and hostility in the society, which can be observed around us daily. Fortunately, the authors' research suggests that however bad the current situation may be, things can be improved. Taking an overview of the social changes in America over the past 125 years, the authors pointed out that the US experienced the same difficulties in the late 19th century but successfully pulled itself out of the rut during the first half of the 20th century. So, the authors believe that there is no reason why the US (and other democracies) can't steer an upswing cycle again to rebuild a more sympathetic, consensual, and conciliatory democracy in the 21st century.
It is complicated, of course. But I like the book for being upbeat and hopeful. I also like the fact that the book inspires me to exercise my own agency as a private individual to be more involved in communities around me and/or interest me in order to make a positive contribution to reshape a better society.
'The most important book in social science for many years' Paul Collier, TLS Books of the Year
The Upswing is Robert D. Putnam's brilliant analysis of economic, social, cultural and political trends from the Gilded Age to the present, showing how America went from an individualistic 'I' society to a more communitarian 'We' society and then back again, and how we can all learn from that experience.
In the late nineteenth century, America was highly individualistic, starkly unequal, fiercely polarised and deeply fragmented, just as it is today. However, as the twentieth century dawned, America became - slowly, unevenly, but…
In December 2024, I got an opportunity to present at a workshop in Leiden University about women's representation in Taiwanese-language cinema in 1950s-1970s. This makes me think more deeply about women and cinema, women filmmakers and cinema, and what women's cinema may imply. One of the books I consulted and enjoyed is Chinese Women's Cinema: Transnational Contexts (2011). I am surprised and delighted to discover that there are strong Taiwan/Republic of China (ROC) elements in this book.
This discovery is important in that the female filmmakers, writers, and works analysed in this book are all prominent and outstanding in their own right. So, I am curious why not all of them have been known more widely in their own societies - China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese communities - let along globally? Therefore, a number of like-minded friends and I have got together and try to understand why and how women’s involvement in film industries and adjacent businesses has not been matched by critical analysis of their contributions. We expand our investigation from the Greater China to East Asia. Moreover, we wish to uncover how women's creativity and viewpoints have helped reflect and shape not just film practices and industries but also social movements in the region. Furthermore, we want to know while these achievements may be celebrated individually, can we also connect the dots of East Asian women's cinema and make a meaningful intervention into global film histories?
I like the curiosity provoked and challenges brought to me by this book.
The first of its kind in English, this collection explores twenty one well established and lesser known female filmmakers from mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the Chinese diaspora. Sixteen scholars illuminate these filmmakers' negotiations of local and global politics, cinematic representation, and issues of gender and sexuality, covering works from the 1920s to the present. Writing from the disciplines of Asian, women's, film, and auteur studies, contributors reclaim the work of Esther Eng, Tang Shu Shuen, Dong Kena, and Sylvia Chang, among others, who have transformed Chinese cinematic modernity. Chinese Women's Cinema is a unique, transcultural, interdisciplinary conversation on…
My book is about Taiwan cinema in the 21st century. Focused on the work of prominent filmmaker Wei Te-sheng, renowned for his blockbuster hits like "Cape No.7," "Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale," and "Kano," the book sheds light on Taiwan cinema’s resurgence after a period of decline until approximately 2008. It probes the intricacies of how cinema reflects and shapes Taiwan's shifting social dynamics within the historical narrative of Taiwan. Of particular significance is the exploration of the global reception of contemporary Taiwan cinema. It offers insightful perspectives on why, compared to previous decades, current Taiwan cinema may be met with a less enthusiastic response internationally on the one hand, but enjoyed higher domestic popularity on the other hand.
