Thirty-two New Takes on Taiwan Cinema

Thirty-two New Takes on Taiwan Cinema covers thirty-two films from Taiwan, addressing a flowering of new talent, moving from art film to genre pictures, and nonfiction. Beyond the conventional framework of privileging “New and Post-New Cinema,” or prominence of auteurs or single films, this volume is a comprehensive, judicious take on Taiwan cinema that fills gaps in the literature, offers a renewed historiography, and introduces new creative force and voices of Taiwan’s moving image culture to produce a leading and accessible work on Taiwan film and culture.

Film-by-film is conceived as the main carrier of moving picture imagery for a majority of viewers, across the world. The curation offers an array of formal, historical, genre, sexual, social, and political frames, which provide a rich brew of contexts. This surfeit of meanings is carried by individual films, one by one, which breaks down abstractions into narrative bites and outsized emotions.

Emilie Yueh-yu Yeh is Lam Wong Yiu Wah Chair Professor and Dean of Faculty of Arts at Lingnan University.

Darrell William Davis is Honorary Professor in the Visual Studies Department at Lingnan University.

Wenchi Lin is Professor of English and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at National Central University, Taiwan.

Praise / Awards

• “With its exceptional scope and depth, this extraordinary volume’s contribution as a reference source for Taiwan’s contemporary cinema is unsurpassed. Through thirty-two carefully curated films, the book tracks Taiwan’s tortuous trajectory from Cold-War isolation to today’s more globally connected world—one that better appreciates Taiwan’s innovative achievements while still denying its statehood. The engaging, masterfully written chapters encompass an impressive array of diversely conceptualized methodologies; the result is destined to expand and reconfigure the landscape of Taiwan film (and cultural) studies in the English-speaking world.”
  —Sung-sheng Yvonne Chang, The University of Texas at Austin
• “Thirty-two New Takes on Taiwan Cinema skillfully teases out the multiple threads of Taiwan cinema over the past six decades. It identifies the leading figures of different genres, styles, and generations; describes ideological and affective agendas; and ponders the consequences of cinema as a unique manifestation of the island as it encounters the world. Historically informed and methodologically engaged, this book will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the cultural and visual dynamics of Taiwan in the Sinophone and global contexts.”
  —David Wang, Harvard University
• “Thirty-two New Takes on Taiwan Cinema is a truly mammoth assembly of thought-provoking chapters written by some of the world’s leading experts on the subject. This book covers a broad range of auteurs, genres, styles, and themes to reflect the diversity of Taiwan’s cinematic output. It also seeks to expand the canon of critically lauded works by legendary filmmakers so that heretofore overlooked or misunderstood films, including those by up-and-coming artists working outside the industry, receive the attention that they deserve.”
  —David Scott Diffrient, Colorado State University