The Use of the Modern and Taiwanese Film History

This talk will address a fundamental issue in the writing of film history: how do we articulate the relationship between modernity/modernization and film history without determination? That is to say, is it possible to formulate this relationship as a germinating condition for film stylistics in which filmmakers can be seen as making meaningful choices? I propose the use of the modern as a means to redress the often-simplified, unidirectional causality of modernity/modernization in global film historiography. My manuscript-in-progress, Modernism Disclaimed: Taiwanese Film Historiography Before City of Sadness, will be an exhibit in thinking along with mid-century Taiwanese intellectuals about the urgency of a modern cinema on the island of Formosa.