![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.asianinny.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/@mx_600.jpg\" "\\"Contemporary")
<\/a><\/p>\nFrom May 6 to 19, the Film Society of Lincoln Center presents Taiwan Stories: Classic and Contemporary Film from Taiwan<\/a>, a survey of the ever-surprising Taiwanese Cinema, at the Walter Reade Theater. On Saturday, May 7 at 4pm there will be a conference on “Filmmaking in Taiwan: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow” in the Walter Reade Theater. Admission to the conference is complimentary. Tickets are only available at the Walter Reade Theater’s box office, on a first-come, first-served basis. The series, co-sponsored by the Government Information Office of Taiwan, is held as part of a year\u2019s worth of events to be held around the world celebrating the 100th anniversary of the republic of China.<\/p>\n Filmmaking in Taiwan began in the silent era, as the Japanese (rulers of Taiwan from 1895-1945) often used the island as a kind of exotic locale. After the move to the island of the Nationalist Government under Chiang Kai-Shek (Jiang Jieshi), equipment and personnel from the Nationalist-run Central Motion Picture Studio came as part of the evacuation. Many of these first Taiwanese films were rousing anthems of resistance to People\u2019s Republic; simultaneously, a much smaller Taiwanese-dialect cinema also emerged, with the island\u2019s audiences often strictly divided as to what films they saw based on their language (Mandarin Chinese vs. Taiwanese dialect).<\/p>\n By the early 1960s, a new generation of Taiwanese filmmakers began to create films that swapped patriotic themes for a closer look at daily life. Of special interest is the work of Lee Hsing (Li Xing), whose Our Neighbors<\/a> and Oyster Girl<\/a> represented an updating of the pre-war Shanghai cinema tradition. The Sixties saw as well the emergence of Hong Kong cinema as a major force, especially with their period operas and martial arts films; after falling out with Shaw Brothers, director Lee Han-hsiang (Li Hanxiang) moved to Taiwan and attempted to set up a rival operation. Lee\u2019s Beauty of Beauties<\/a> remains one of his finest works, while his friend King Hu\u2019s A Touch of Zen<\/a> is widely considered one of the unquestionable masterworks of Chinese cinema.<\/p>\n By the early Eighties, the social transformation of the island hinted at in the social realist films of the Sixties was nearly complete: Taiwan was now one of the Asian economic \u201ctigers,\u201d highly prosperous, modern and stable. A new generation of filmmakers, some of them educated abroad, emerged: Chang Yi (Zhang Yi), Fred Tan, Stan Lai, Tsai Ming-liang, Edward Yang (the subject of an upcoming FSLC retrospective) and of course Hou Hsiao-hsien (Hou Xiao-xien). From the mid-Eighties through the late Nineties, Taiwanese films were widely acclaimed around the world; Hou topped several surveys of the \u201cMost Important Director of the Nineties,\u201d including many best-of-decade lists in the Film Society\u2019s Film Comment. Unhappily, as Taiwanese filmmakers were being celebrated internationally, their fate at home was quite the opposite. Taiwan\u2019s wide-open film market was completely dominated by foreign, mainly American, films\u2014so much so that Edward Yang\u2019s Cannes prize-winner, Yi Yi, could not find distribution.<\/p>\n