Post Taiwan New Cinema Era: The Auteurs and the Industry by Dr Chen Pin-chuan

Introduction

In the realm of global cinema, ‘Taiwan Cinema’ has been a recognisable entity since the 1980s, earning a strong reputation from both cultural and artistic perspectives. However, following the Taiwan New Cinema movement of the 1980s, international discourse on Taiwanese cinema seems to have relatively stagnated. Despite the subsequent diversification of Taiwanese cinema into various forms, including documentaries and commercial films, contemporary Taiwanese cinema, particularly from the 2000s onwards, apart from localised explorations and historical and archaeological investigations, especially in areas such as Taiwanese-Language Cinema (Taiyupian), appears to have reached a standstill in terms of its discourse development within the broader context of film history.

Drawing from the speaker’s practical experience and engagement with the film industry, this presentation will examine the characteristics of Taiwanese film directors in the post-Taiwan New Cinema era. The aim is to assess the current landscape of Taiwanese cinema from both an authorship and an industry perspective, providing insights for discussing further research directions in the realm of Taiwan Cinema.

About the Speaker

Dr Chen Pin-Chuan (陳斌全) is the former Director of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI), previously known as the Taiwan Film Institute (TFI). He is a scholar specialising in Taiwanese cinema, documentary filmmaking, and archival films. Pin-Chuan obtained his PhD in Film Studies from King’s College London and taught film and documentary production, as well as film theory, as a full-time faculty member at various universities. One of his research interests is the use of film and documentary production as a means of social engagement. In addition to his fifteen years of experience in higher education, Pin-Chuan served as the Director of the TFI from 2016 to 2019, during which he dedicated his time to the preservation and restoration of films. Currently, he is the Director of the Cultural Division at the Taipei Representative Office in the UK, where he is responsible for organising art and cultural exchanges and promoting Taiwan’s film heritage to a global audience.