Taiwan Cinema A Contested Nation on Screen [Hardcover]

A groundbreaking study of Taiwan cinema, Hong provides helpful insight into how it is taught and studied by taking into account not only the auteurs of New Taiwan Cinema, but also the history of popular genre films before the 1980s. The book is essential for students and scholars of Taiwan, film and visual studies, and East Asian cultural history.Introduction: Taiwan Cinema and the Historiography of Absence PART I: GENRES Colonial Archives, Postcolonial Archaeology: Pre-1945 Taiwan and the Hybrid Texts of Cinema before Nation Cinema among Genres: An Unorthodox History of Taiwan's Dialect Cinema, 1955-1970 Tracing a Journeyman's Electric Shadow: Healthy Realism, Cultural Policies, and Lee Hsing, 1964-1980 Interlude: Hou Hsiao-Hsien before Hou Hsiao-Hsien: Film Aesthetics in Transition, 1980-1982 PART II: STYLE A Time to Live, a Time to Die: New Taiwan Cinema and Its Vicissitudes, 1982-1986 Island of No Return: Cinematic Narration as Retrospection in Wang Tong's Taiwan Trilogy and Beyond Anywhere But Here: The Postcolonial City in Tsai Ming-Liang's Taipei Trilogy Afterword: Cinema after Nation

Hong is particularly strong when it comes to analyzing the films of [the new wave ] period, and it is a pleasure to rethink these films in light of his sensitive and intelligent insights. . .[Taiwan's national identity] is made richer by scholars like Hong, who passionately argue and reargue the nature of a national identity. His book adds one more narrative to a debate that derives its richness from its diverse perspective sand its never-ending reinterpretation of identity in a restless and dynamic society. - Taiwan Review

Recommended. - CHOICE

'For most of us, Taiwan cinema has meant Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Edward Yang, Tsai Ming-Liang and perhaps Ang Lee, incredible talent from an orphan island, but by no means the whole roster. Guo-Juin Hong puts these masters into a grand historical picture, highlighting other directors and genres, lƒ7