Book launch: Taiwan Cinema - International Reception and Social Change

Ming-Yeh Rawnsley (SOAS), Gary Rawnsley (Aberystwyth) and Valentina Vitali (University of East London)

Description

Edited by Kuei-fen Chiu, Ming-yeh Rawnsley and Gary Rawnsley, the book examines recent developments in Taiwan cinema, with particular focus on a leading contemporary Taiwan filmmaker, Wei Te-sheng, who is responsible for such Asian blockbusters as Cape No.7, Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale and Kano. The book discusses key issues, including: why (until about 2008) Taiwan cinema underwent a decline, and how cinema is portraying current social changes in Taiwan, including changing youth culture and how it represents indigenous people in the historical narrative of Taiwan. The book also explores the reasons why current Taiwan cinema is receiving a much less enthusiastic response globally compared to its reception in previous decades.

Speaker bios

Gary Rawnsley is Professor of Public Diplomacy in the Department of International Politics, working at the intersection of international politics and communications. Professor Rawnsley has held visiting positions in Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. He is book reviews editor of the Journal of International Communication and serves on the editorial boards of the Asian Journal of Communication, the American Journal of Chinese Studies and Media and Communication. Professor Rawnsley is also a member of the Soft Power Advocacy and Research Centre at Macquarie University and an External Fellow of the China Policy Institute at the University of Nottingham.

Valentina Vitali is a film historian. Her research explores, from a comparative perspective, the relation between history, economics and film aesthetics. She has written extensively on Hindi cinema, on concepts of the national in cinema, and on film historiography. She has been teaching film history and theory for twenty years.

Ming-yeh Rawnsley received her PhD (on the topic “Public Service Television in Taiwan”) from the Institute of Communications Studies (ICS), University of Leeds in 1998. Since then, she worked as a researcher at the University of Nottingham (1999–2005) and became Head of Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC, 2005–2007). Before she joined SOAS as Research Associate, she researched and taught East Asian film industries at the ICS, University of Leeds (2007–2013).

Organiser: SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies

Contact email: bc18@soas.ac.uk