Chris Berry, “Taiwanese-language Cinema as Cold War Industry and Culture : Compliance Without Commitment”. In Remapping the Cold War in Asian Cinemas, edited by Sangjoon Lee and Darlene Espena. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Amsterdam University Press, 2024.
Abstract
The Taiwanese-language films (taiyupian) of the 1950s to the 1970s have
excited renewed interest, often focused on the differences between the
local Taiwanese-speaking islanders and the Mandarin-favoring forces that
took over from the Japanese in 1945. This chapter asks how we understand
taiyupian as a Cold War cinema. First, it considers the impact of the Cold
War on the production, distribution, and exhibition of taiyupian when
the natural market was divided by the Bamboo Curtain. Second, how
can we consider the films themselves as shaped by and contributing to
the culture of the Cold War? Finally, in East Asia, the Cold War is not
over. So, how does the revival of interest in taiyupian participate in the
ongoing Cold War?
Keywords: taiyupian; transnational cinema; Cold War cosmopolitanism; cultural policy
