Chinese Diaspora Filmmakers: The Case of Midi Z

he Asia Dialogue
Date: September 7, 2019
By: Maja Korbecka.

In recent years most representatives of Taiwanese cinema to gain recognition at the international film festivals have come from Chinese diasporas in Southeast Asia. Directors like Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮), Wi Ding Ho (何蔚庭) and the increasingly celebrated Midi Z (趙德胤) migrated to Taiwan for education and to pursue a career. Now they are featured at events co-organised by Taiwanese film institutions and representing Taiwanese cinema at film festivals, influencing the way Taiwan is seen internationally.

This is one example of the global phenomenon of transnational cinema. Here Taiwanese cinema is characterised by artistic mindsets and film poetics shown through on-screen storytelling influenced by cross-cultural aesthetics. These aesthetics focus on the representation of migration, exilic or diasporic experiences, and are themselves encompassed in the movement of labour, modes of co-production, international distribution, exhibition and reception, and the consequences of cross-national capital exchanges. Through analysing film narratives, director backgrounds as well as modes of production and exhibition, it is possible to glimpse the complexity of the interplay between national cinema and transnational practices. Such interplay continues to transform film histories, undermining exclusionary monolithic national narratives in favour of more multifaceted and personal accounts of hybridity and diversity.

The filmmaker’s use of guerrilla techniques stylistically shapes the work and adds layers of possible interpretations by focusing on state control and surveillance    [FULL  STORY]