Description
Book SynopsisWhy has Taiwanese film been so appealing to film directors, critics, and audiences across the world? This book argues that because Taiwan is a nation without hard political and economic power, cinema becomes a form of soft power tool that Taiwan uses to attract global attention, to gain support, and to build allies. Author Song Hwee Lim shows how this goal has been achieved by Taiwanese directors whose films win the hearts and minds of foreign audiences to make Taiwan a major force in world cinema.The book maps Taiwan''s cinematic output in the twenty-first century through the three keywords in the book''s subtitle-authorship, transnationality, historiography. Its object of analysis is the legacy of Taiwan New Cinema, a movement that begun in the early 1980s that has had a lasting impact upon filmmakers and cinephiles worldwide for nearly forty years. By examining case studies that include Hou Hsiao-hsien, Ang Lee, and Tsai Ming-liang, this book suggests that authorship is central to T
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Notes on Chinese Romanization, translation, and citation List of Illustrations List of Tables Introduction Cinema as Soft Power, Soft Power as Method Chapter 1 The Historiographical Turn: Documenting Taiwan New Cinema as Cross-cultural Cinephilia Chapter 2 The Aural Turn: Hou Hsiao-hsien's Gendered and Material Voices Chapter 3 The Medial Turn: Tsai Ming-liang's Slow Walk to the Museum Chapter 4 The Industrial Turn: Ang Lee's Transpacific Crossings as Cultural Brokerage Chapter 5 The Affective Turn: "Little Freshness" as Regional Soft Power Epilogue Alien Resurrection or, the Afterlives of Taiwan New Cinema Filmography Glossary of Chinese Characters Works Cited Index
