Film Screenings / 5 FILMS BY HSIN CHI/XIN QI [ONLINE FILM SERIES - Nov 17-30]
From November 17-30, 2021, Anthology Film Archives presents a retrospective devoted to Taiwanese filmmaker HSIN Chi. Presented in collaboration with the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute (TFAI) and the Taipei Cultural Center of TECO in New York, the retrospective showcases not only the under-recognized work of HSIN Chi, but also TFAI's ambitious, vitally important, and ongoing efforts to preserve Taiwanese Cinema, including those that fall under the category of Taiyu Pian: Taiwanese-dialect films produced between 1955-81, in which the characters speak only Taiwanese (i.e., Taiwanese Minnan or Hokkien) despite their various backgrounds in the story. During the heyday of this vibrant local film industry, over 1,000 films were produced, but less than 200 have survived. Since 2014, TFAI has endeavored to restore some of these Taiwanese-dialect gems.
For full details regarding the retrospective - which includes five of HSIN's feature films, all of which will be streaming for free - click here.
As a very special supplement to the retrospective, the current page is designed to showcase further information and resources regarding HSIN Chi, including two newly translated articles, as well as special pre-recorded introductions by several guests. Scroll down for more details.
In order to provide historical information and context about HSIN Chi, Taiyu Pian filmmaking, and the preservation of this realm of cinema, we invited three guests to record a general discussion, as well as introductions to each of the film films in the retrospective. The guests are:
Dr. Wan-Jui WANG (Professor of Taiwanese Literature & Creative Innovation at National Chung Cheng University, where he is conducting research into Taiwan New Cinema, Taiwanese film history, and transnational Chinese cinemas)
Chih-Heng SU (author of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Taiwan: The Life and Death of Taiwanese Hokkien Cinema”, and a specialist on Taiwanese-Language Cinema)
Dr. Chun-Chi WANG (Executive Director of the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, and a specialist in film and television critical theory)
For the group discussion featuring all three guests, click here.
For introductions to the individual films, click here for a video intro by Chih-Heng SU and here for a video intro by Wan-Jui WANG.
In addition, with assistance from translator Robert Fox, we offer the following two articles about HSIN Chi's life and work (click on the titles for the full texts):
INTRODUCTION TO THE FILM EXHIBITION, "HSIN CHI: NEW AND INNOVATIVE"
by WANG Wan Jui, Assistant Professor, National Chung Cheng University Institute of Taiwanese Literature and Innovation
“HSIN CHI: NEW AND INNOVATIVE” EXHIBITION – POST-SCREENING DISCUSSIONS
