Contemporary Taiwan Cinema
Key information
- Date
- Time
-
1:30 pm to 3:00 pm
- Venue
- Main Building, SOAS University of London, 10 Thornhaugh St, London WC1H 0XG
- Room
- KLT
About this event
This talk is based on Dr Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley's chapter in the forthcoming book, Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Taiwan, 2nd Edition (ed. Gunter Schubert, 2024).
The talk adopts a chronological approach to conduct a broad survey of contemporary Taiwan cinema by introducing Taiwanese-language cinema (taiyupian), Healthy Realism (jiankang xieshi), commercial genre films, Taiwan New Cinema (TNC), and Post-New Cinema.
The author does not suggest a lineal development from one period to the next or a causal connection from one cinema to another. Instead the author’s intention is to showcase the plurality and richness of Taiwan’s cinematic heritage by paying homage to different periods and genres. Moreover, the overall question that links all the sections in this talk is what ‘national cinema’ may mean in Taiwan under various historical, cultural and political contexts.
Meet the speaker
Dr. Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley
Dr. Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley is Research Associate, Centre of Taiwan Studies, SOAS University of London, and Research Associate, Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. She is also Editor-in-Chief, International Journal of Taiwan Studies (2018–present), and a co-editor (with Gary Rawnsley) of a short book series, ‘Anthem Impact in Asian Media, Cinema and Communications’. She has published widely in both English and Chinese on Chinese-language cinema and media and democratisation in Taiwan.
Her most recent publications include Taiwanese-Language Cinema: Rediscovered and Reconsidered (eds with Chris Berry, Corrado Nerri, and Wafa Ghermani, 2024) and Routledge Handbook of Chinese Media, 2nd Edition (with Yiben Ma and Gary Rawnsley, 2025).
This event is part of the SOAS Centre of Taiwan Studies Summer School programme at SOAS Khalili Lecture Theatre, between 25–28 June 2024. The Summer School is free and open to the public; registeration needed.
Photo credit: Chromatograph via Unsplash.
