History and National Identity in A City of Sadness (1989)

1
History and National Identity in A City of
Sadness (1989)

• ??? and Kate Liu

2
Outline

• Background Hou Hsiao-Hsien ???, Taiwanese Films
  and History
• Issues for Discussion
• Its historical methods and presentation of 228
• Its views of Taiwanese history and national
  identity
• History and contemporary Taiwan

3
Hou Hsiao-Hsien ???

• In Taiwanese Films New Taiwanese Cinema
• ????? Edward Yang 1982
• Hous ???????????????????--???
• Localism and realism (vs. ?? films)
• Hou stationed camera with long take careful
  aesthetic composition.

4
???In Taiwanese Films (2)

• A City of Sadness
• -- 30 million NT dollar budget (over 1 million US
  dollars), twice its original budget and larger
  than that of any other films at the time.
• -- the first Taiwanese film, and the first Asian
  film in 40 years, to have won The Gold Lion at
  Venice Film Fest.
• -- both promoted and denied to be a film about
  228.
• -- shown without cuts after winning the prize.
  (Ref. Chi 71-72)

5
???In Taiwanese Films (3)

• ??????
• The making a film for the Ministry of National
  Defense????? by Hou, ??????????.
• an advertisement for the armed forces
• The use of the form of music video
• Debates over its complicity with the government,
  implicit subversiveness or its just being an odd
  event.

6
Hou Hsiao-Hsien ??? (2)

• 2. Taiwanese History
• (1) early films Taiwanese society in the 80s
• (2) ????? -
• 10th-- ????1989?1945-1949 (????????)
• ????1993??????????1910?????- 1939- ????1945.
• ?????1937 ?????????1940 ???.-1949 ???-1950
  ???????????????lt?????gt??.
• (3) Recent Films ?????????????

7
Hou Hsiao-Hsien ??? (3)

• 3. The Taiwanese in History
• A City of Sadness like Lotus Blossom Land, it
  is part of the liberated/liberating discourses
  around the time of ???
• (The films preparation since 1987 1988, the
  lifting of martial law ? released in 1989)
• (2) ????? -
• ??????????????lt?????gt???????(??)???

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The Films Historical Methods

• Questions
• Is the film about 228?
• If not, what is it about? If so, why is 228 so
  important in Taiwanese History?

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228 in Taiwans History

• A turning point Birth of a nation and its
  brutalities
• Its controversies multiple interpretation of
  the following issues?
• Interpretation of ???and the armys killing the
  innocent civilians
• Official documents completely publicized or
  not
• The correctness of official history vs. witness
  accounts

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228 and The Films Presentation

• The films apparent focuses
• Lin family (??????)???????????? (and ??, the
  brother of ??s concubine vs. ???
• Hinomi (Kuan-mei) and Wen-ching (??????????)
• Hino (Kuan-liang) and the other intellectuals
  revolt (???????)
• How are the gang fights related to 228?

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228 and the Gang Fights

• forged money ? ?? ? ????? involved
• ?? is able to solve the problem with the help of
  the elderly woman
• But ?? is caught as a traitor. Why? The
  Shanghaiese merchants.
• clip of negotiation

12
228 and The Films Presentation

• Worries and complaints beforehand.
• The central event not presented but told by
  the radio broadcast and written about by ?? and
  ??.
• clips 228 mentioned
• then suggested through
• the showing of
• subsequent riots
• and violence.

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Historical Notes in The Opening and Closing Shots
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Historical Methods and Narrative Perspectives

• The use of dates, historical accounts and long
  take to present history e.g. ??????????
• To contextualize 228 multiple storyline and
  discourses (those of diary, ???merchants)
• Narrative Perspectives of the Marginalized
• ????, taking photo.
• ???/??, keeping her diary

15
The Intellectuals De-Politicized Scenes and
Images

• ??????????
• The Intellectuals Discussion 1 ? Shifted to the
  personal ?????? clip
• The Intellectuals Discussion 2--????????? clip
  
• Ironies Wen-chings involvement the prison
  scene

16
The Intellectuals De-Politicized Scenes
Images (2)

• In the script, a letter about where the weapons
  are ? turned into a poem in the film
• ? nobility of the intellectuals

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(II) The Film as a National Allegory

• What does the film say about KMT and the
  conflicts between the Taiwanese and the mainland
  Chinese? Is it just a story of exploitation and
  sadness?
• 1) The history of Exploitation and Survival
• 2) Confusing National Signs and Identities
• 3) National Myth and Cultural Gaps.

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II-1. Taiwanese Identitiesthe Sad

• ???????vs. ???????????
• Language hierarchy in the negotiation
  scene????????????????????????????
• ?? --??????

?????????????????? ???????????????. ????????????.?
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What survives?

• The old, the weak and mentally deranged?
• The diary, letters and photos
• ??????????????????????.?????????????????????.?

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II-2. Taiwanese Chinese Confusing
National Signs and Identities

• In Transition
• ???????
• ?? ??????,????,????,?????????????????????????.?
• Colonial/National Education
• The Japanese Culture
• The mainland Chinese ???????????????.
• ??
• Signs of The Taiwanese -- Japanese language e.g.
  ??????????

21
II-2. Confusing Taiwanese Identities between
Japan and China

• The Japanese ??????????
• Longing for the Chinese The birth of ???and the
  opening of ?????
• National Education the teaching of
  mandarin(??)????

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II-2. Confusing Taiwanese Identities between
Japan and the West

• ????????????????????
• ???????????
• ????
• lt?????gt

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II-2. Confusing Identities Taiwans Return to
China

• Exploited and mistrusted -- ?? -- why is he mad?
• tortured in the Chinese army? ? the conflicts
  between China and Japan.
• Note The Taiwanese
• are mistrusted and seen
• as traitors in????

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II-2. National Myth and Allegory Deconstructed
and Re-Built

• An Allegory of Taiwans colonial History
• Different sets of hierarchy cultural
  assimilation by the Japanese ? faulty education
  and discrimination by KMT(????????)
• Confusing national signs (?????) ? from jokes to
  violence
• The down fall and survival of the Lins.

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Misplaced Signs, Cultural Gaps and Historical
Fragments

• ?????????
• as myth
• as nostalgia misplaced or made impossible?
• ????? Do they understand the experience of
  migration of the mainland Chinese?
• Disconnectedness between the opening and closing
  shots.

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History and contemporary Taiwan

• The film
• an uncertain and indirect revision on Taiwans
  long-repressed trauma (of many intellectuals who
  died and disappeared). ? not a totally
  pessimistic view, though.
• multiple stories, dialects and writings
• ? multiple economic and political factors in
  racial conflicts in the context of multiple
  colonization.
• ? some diversified roots for contemporary racial
  conflicts.