Historical Context, Cultural Background

Contemporary Taiwanese cinema (from the 1980s to the present) must be understood in relation to, and in reaction against, earlier forms of film-making on the island. Though I do not consider the large body of films that were produced between 1895 and the early 1980s to comprise the New Taiwanese cinematic ‘tradition’, one cannot understand the context out of which this tradition arose without looking back into history. One must look beyond the frame, so to speak, to see within it.

The earliest films which were produced on the island of Taiwan were Japanese products, examples of ‘imperial Japanese film culture’ (Gaskett 3). Japan controlled the majority of media content in the earlier half of the century, a control that was tied directly to a rapid succession of Japanese military victories. This control extended in both ways: not only did Japanese filmmakers ‘set up shop’ in their extended empire, but non-Japanese filmmakers from within that empire were drawn away from their own countries and into Japan.