Saturday, May 25, 2019

June Yip proposes post colonialism to evaluate Taiwanese films Essay

June Yip analyzes mainland China in the book Envisioning Taiwan as a new breed of country in the targetcolonial sequence which has least interest in the idea of nation-state, maintaining its very local faces as well as open to international influences with much surprise. Yip takes a look at Taiwans post-national territory status through its fiction and cinema movement concentrating her attention to filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien. (Winterton)Taiwan has a farseeing history of colonialism and suppression, but the multinational capitalism, mass migration, the arrival of new electronic media all these encouraged a post youthful culture and have questioned the traditional touch on as well as made the notion of nation irrelevant. June Yip emphasizes the hybrid nature of identity as fallout of postmodernism, is vastly reflected in the hold form of Taiwanese films. The earlier versions were more conventional and guarded the theme of nationhood. She points in her book Hous films present a pict ure the island as an progressively complex and hybrid social space, an ever-changing formation.(Yip, 230) Yip focuses that Taiwanese New Cinema, emerged in the 1980s and its patrons are fascinated with displaying the socio-historical qualities of modern Taiwans experience and also to form a sense of Taiwanese cultural identity with centralizing on the search for nationhood in their works. They represent the tough renewing period of Taiwans history through which the island came to the global order and try to depict the same in their films with a quest for an understanding of a modern Taiwanese experience and rising questions from present and future. (Yip, 10)Yip also presents the grim picture of Taiwans history where under various regimes either Japanese or Chinese, the linguistic medium of films was strictly regulated by the ruling authorities. Most of these languages were foreign to the locals while the local medium was eclipsed. So, in modern Taiwanese cinema, a global touch co uld be felt where characters easily switch from Taiwanese to Mandarin to Japanese to English, showcasing a multicultural effect. (Yip, 6) Yip clarifies that Taiwans cultural awareness took time to surface itself on cinema due to its colonial Hanover.As there is a strong link mingled with cinema and the idea of nationhood but in the later half of the 20th century the cinema carried a huge responsibility of nation building as being a visual medium. Government was always involved in making of Taiwanese films but in 1990s it felt the need to relax the belts as to get back commercial as well as critical acclaim. Most of the film personalisedities have grown the age of rigidity, so when they started work they tries their best to free themselves from the knuckles and criticized the government under its banner itself as well as displayed the new experiences with global changes.The films Three Times and Puppetmaster have shown the changes of post colonialism. Three Times is a film consis ting of three episodes based in three periods of Taiwanese history showcasing the problems of the turbulent times in the history, compel for granting immunity and also the confusion prevailing in a contemporary city. The Puppet master recollects the life of a puppeteer spanning during the period of Japanese occupation of the island and portraying the morose state of the Taiwanese people and their hardships and also depicts the loss of tradition under suppression and western influence.Both the films in their respective themes lament sufferings of the history and urge to come out of the rigid circumstances supporting Yips thesis. (Schumann) While The Wedding Banquet is a drama with humorous touch where personal relationships, based on generation and cultural conflicts within individuals of slender theme rather matching the concept of analysis of Yip of Taiwanese cinema.

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