 OK, welcome to the fourth film of our Taiwan Film Week. I'm David Fell, I help run the Center of Taiwan Studies here at SOAS. Today's event is a little bit different from the last three days. Today, we're celebrating the paperback publication of documenting Taiwan on film. But we're also going to be showing one of the films that's featured in this book. And the book is edited by Santhalan and Sylvia Lin. And we're really fortunate that we've got Santhalan. He's going to be here to talk both about her chapter in the book and the process of putting the book together. I'm the editor for the Routledge Research on Taiwan series. And I was so delighted when I got this proposal. And what I like particularly about this book was the documentaries that they cover. And increasingly, in my teaching, I've been using Taiwanese documentaries more and more. Because I feel it's a wonderful resource for us, for our teaching on Taiwanese politics, Taiwanese society, and Taiwanese history. So for example, we have a chapter in the book that looks at the public television service documentary at Taiwan on People's History. It's an eight-part review of Taiwan's history. It's something that I often will give to my post-grads or undergrads who don't know too much about Taiwan's history. It's a wonderful, straightforward introduction. It also looks at things like social movements. One of my favorite Taiwanese documentaries is Gongyao Ni Haoma about the anti-nuclear movement. And Cui Xin Ling's documentaries is covered in another chapter here. One of the problems, of course, with academic publications is they're just too expensive. I think the hardback version that came out in 2012 was something like 75, 80 pounds. But finally, the paperback has come out. So it's an affordable price. And one of the nice things is that because of the floods, Routledge have agreed to sell the books today at a flood discount price. We'll have a few Routledge paperbacks going for 10 pounds tonight, which is good. I'm going to hand over now to Jambiyu, who's going to talk a little bit. And then we'll hear from Sun Thala. Professor Sun Thala, could you wave at everyone? Yes, thank you. Thank you. We are very lucky to have her here. And she is the professor of Chinese literature and cultural studies at Michigan State University, in addition to Taiwan's documentaries. I mean, actually her research focuses mainly on gender politics, sexuality, early 20th century Chinese popular literature, and recently on Ailin Zhang, that's Zhang Ailin, the most influential modern Chinese novelists. The documentary, Viva Tonal, now we are going to screen tonight, is featured in the book and written by Professor Sun. So as usual, before we start the film, on behalf of the Center of Taiwan Studies, we would like to thank the support from the end and the really generous donation we have received from the Ministry of Culture and, of course, from Dr. Samuel Ng. So without further ado, you should enjoy this film very much. But after this, let me explain a little bit about this procedure. After the screening, Professor Sun will give us a little bit of introduction about the film and her chapter. But she was saying to me that maybe she liked to see whether there's some more questions just immediately after the screening. If you have any questions, please raise your hands, then she can actually carry on from there. If you are very shy and you don't really want to initiate any discussion first, then she will trigger your curiosities by giving you some talk and also talk a little bit about her chapters. So let's welcome Professor Sun formally. And please give her a round of applause, please. Thank you. Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank Dr. Fell and Yiyu. And there are other colleagues at the Center for Talent Studies for inviting me. It's a real pleasure to be here tonight. I think the last time I was in London was more than 10 years ago. It's really nice to be back. I'd like to perhaps just give you a little background information about this film and tell you a little bit about why I chose to screen this film. I was not involved in the shooting or production of this film. I approached this film mainly as a scholar of Chinese culture. So let's see if I could just find. OK. So the title of my presentation today is Colonial Modernity, History, and Gender. I think these are the three key terms that I would identify in this film. So this film was actually shot on a 16-millimeter film. And as you know from your viewing experience, it's focused on Taiwanese-language popular songs during the 1920s and the 30s. Now, the planning and screenplay development and shooting and post-production actually span three years. The idea for the film originated with Silva Feng, Feng Xianxian, who was a senior producer of the documentary viewpoint series at the Taiwan Public Television Service. She's a very good friend of the music collector that you see in the film, Li Kun Cheng. That's why she developed this idea. So she invited a female director, Wei Sijian to make the documentary. And Jian invited Guo Zhendi to collaborate with her. So the two of them got together with the music director, music expert and collector, Li Kun Cheng. And the three of them developed a screenplay for the film. A lot of the research is actually contributed by the music consultant Li Kun Cheng. OK. Now, when the documentary was finished, it was first aired in two episodes on the Public Television Service. And after the initial screening on television, the directors received a lot of feedback from cultural critics in Taiwan. So based on that feedback, they actually shot additional footage and re-edited the film into a version that's 104 minutes. And that is the version that you just saw. They entered this version at the Golden Horse Film Festival in Taipei that year. And it actually won Best Documentary in 2003. Now, the longer version, the 104 minute version, was also released in the theaters in Taipei, which was very rare for documentary films at that time. And it actually had a relatively high box office receipts, totaling $1.3 million, new $10, which translates into around 8,000 tickets. So since then, this film has been shown quite frequently on campuses and film festivals like this, and also in classes that focus on either Colonial Taiwan or Taiwanese film or Taiwanese documentary. So it's still attracting thousands of new viewers every year. By the way, it's also available on DVD. OK, so when the film was first screened in Taiwan, the television version came out. And then later on, the theater release version came out. So what were the main reactions? There were positive reactions and also very negative reactions. So the positive reactions, many around like this, this film uncovered a history that was previously obscured by political ideology during the authoritarian reign of the KMT, the Chinese Nationalists. So from the post-war period up until, say, the lifting of the martial law, this history during the Japanese colonial period was sort of hushed over. It was not a subject for people to openly discuss or let alone research. OK, so the film, in a way, restored people's buried memories. The old timers that you see in the film, they have lots of memories about their youth, which coincided with the Japanese colonial period. But they probably, for many years, were not really encouraged to think about that period. But because of the lifting of the martial law, the general political democratization and also the move toward indigenization that was happening in Taiwan in the late 80s and throughout the 1990s, they began able to talk about that past. So this film is encouraging that kind of tendency. Now, moreover, the people who like this film also believe that this film is revealing Taiwan's multicultural heritage to the younger generations who don't know anything about the colonial period. OK, so for example, the people who really like this film, who endorse this film, include former president Li Denghui and also the film documentary critic, Qiu Guifen, for example. Now, on the other side, the people who criticize this film, they mainly believe, felt that the film perhaps idealized the period that was under Japanese colonial rule. In other words, the film prettified colonialism. And the people who voiced this kind of criticism include, for example, the former director of the Taipei Culture Bureau, Liao Xianhao, and also the documentary film critic, Guo Lixin. They all have pretty good reasons for her holding their views. OK, now one thing you probably noticed already is that this film focuses on the period between World War One and World War Two, a seeming golden era in Taiwan characterized by vibrant economic and cultural development. So why? What is the reason for this? Is it nostalgia? Is it nostalgia? Is there anything hidden beneath the nostalgic veneer? That's my question. Now, first of all, I'd like to give you a little context. Postcolonial nostalgia, this is sort of an oxymoron, usually when we say that we're postcolonialism, postcolonial thinking, postcolonial theory, we sort of assume that the people who developed this kind of postcolonial attitude would be somewhat critical of the colonial era. However, in Taiwan, there is a somewhat peculiar situation where there is actually such a thing as postcolonial nostalgia. In other words, nostalgia that's experienced for the colonial period under Japanese rule. Now, in my reading or analysis, I think this kind of postcolonial nostalgia in contemporary Taiwan is often politically motivated. It is actually more than a sentiment. It actually reaches the intensity of an ideology. And the people who feel this kind of nostalgia, some of them at least, in fact, attempt to undermine the legitimacy of the nationalist regime through the idealization or retroactive lionization of Japanese colonial rule. And a good example for this would be the former president, Li Danhui. Several public occasions he has openly claimed that before his 20s, he was actually Japanese, et cetera. And he would pose in pictures that were used for supporting some candidates from the Thai Lian Da, I forgot the English for that, posing in the attire of a Japanese samurai, et cetera. So this is one thing I wanted to point out. In other words, nostalgia, when we talk about nostalgia, it's not just a look toward the past. It's actually often motivated by the present and what they want to accomplish looking toward the future. OK, now I believe this film, this is my reading. You can feel free to disagree with me and discuss with me about this. I don't believe this film is simply a case of nostalgia. And I think what is more important for this film is that it contains a reinterpretation of colonial modernity. I think the film puts forth several views or arguments about the nature of colonial modernity. The first is the relationship between colonizer and colonized cannot be simply summed up in terms of oppression, submission, or domination and resistance. Now rather than examining colonialism in terms of exploitation, entrapment, identity dilemmas, et cetera, the film focuses on the constructive effects of colonialism. However, this does not mean that the film eulogizes the colonial regime as playing a purely generative role. Rather, I believe the film brings to light the ability of the Taiwanese to negotiate colonial governmentality and create their own culture. And the film's core is a search for Taiwanese agency and subjectivity agency, the ability to create, to forge ahead in new directions with limited resources, perhaps. So one prime example of this kind of cultural agency in the film is the sound writer Chen Junyu. His lyrics and poetry are cited in the film. Now, by the way, the page numbers come from this book, like I said in this book. So if you're interested, please do take a look at the books that are available. OK, now when we talk about colonial modernity, there are many, many things that fall under that rubric. But to just give you a few examples of new ideas, a kind of new commodity culture, and popular culture, I believe these things, as the film argues, do not simply emanate from the imperialist center to the peripheries. Rather, the colonial modern was created or constituted through a kind of multidirectional cultural circulation and interaction. The colonized exercised a considerable degree of agency. But at the same time, the film also shows that such agency was being circumscribed within the cultural sphere. In other words, the extent to which the Chinese colonized subjects who exercised their agency was there is a limit. They could not, for example, have quite as much freedom or liberty within the political realm. Their agency was mainly expressed within this very circumscribed cultural realm. Furthermore, the relative flexible cultural space of the interwar years was later shut down, or at least drastically diminished once the imperialization or Kominka campaign started during the war. And if you watch the film, the film ended was the end of the so-called golden era of Taiwanese-language popular film in the early 40s. As the change in policy, it was no longer possible for the record companies to issue records in the Taiwanese language. The songs had to be sung in Japanese, et cetera. So that marked the end of this cultural space. Now, another salient thing in this film for me is the figure of the modern girl. There are two major examples in this film. There is the singer, Chun Chun, as well as the other younger singer, Ai Ai, who's still alive today. Now, Chun Chun, interestingly, is a modern girl from the lower class or lower middle class background, unlike most Taiwanese new women of that era who were from more affluent backgrounds and were highly educated. So Chun Chun, the singer in this film, she sort of represents an alternative type of modern girl that was made possible through colonial capitalism. In other words, colonial capitalism creates certain class mobility during this era. However, the film also shows the limits of this kind of class mobility. The film turns Chun Chun's love story into a love triangle. So this is a little criticism I have of this film, the way it constructs the narrative around Chun Chun's love affair. You can feel free to disagree with me. But in a case, I feel that the film has turned this very interesting, rich figure of the modern girl, taken it and sort of simplified it to some extent, in that it turns this person's story into a love triangle with some symbolic or allegorical overtones. And this has the unfortunate effect of eclipsing her entrepreneurial spirit and professional achievements as a singer. OK, so in the dramatic re-enactment that you saw, you see a university student dressed in western suit courting her in the coffee house that she runs when she opens. And then on the side, there is Chun Chun Yu, who's always dressed in Chinese clothes, eyeing them, looking as if in envy or jealousy. And then finally, there is a Japanese modern boy or modern man that Elian shows up and actually marries Chun Chun. So if you read this plot, it's as if saying that a Japanese modern girl is seeking to move up the social ladder through the capitalist economy and marriage. So she wants to overcome her humble class origins by marrying the westernized Taiwanese university student. However, he has really conservative parents, so they prohibit that match. So in order to show her spite, to overcome that, she marries herself to the Japanese young man who looks very fashionable, very chic, but it's actually disease inside. He carries the germs of tuberculosis. So she tries to move up the social ladder, but ultimately dies a sacrificial lamb on the altar of colonial hierarchy. Her desire to rise in a colonial hierarchy causes her to overvalue her Japanese suitors' superficial trappings and to sort of ignore his underlying disease, which leads her to illness and premature death. So this is a very interesting narrative, of course. It carries a lot of symbolic meaning. But as I mentioned, perhaps the use of this story in a symbolic way has the unintended effect of eclipsing the richness of the real historical figure and as a female entrepreneur and also a very accomplished singer, a very accomplished female professional. All right, just to give you a slightly larger context, this film is not alone in terms of its attempt to reconstruct a forgotten history or to rewrite history. This was actually a larger trend that appeared in the post-martial law era. And in Chinese documentaries, this has appeared quite commonly. And I would just mention that I think the historical narration or revisionist narration helps to fashion the Chinese national identity. In order to create a common sense of identity, narration is extremely important. And that's why a lot of filmmakers, as well as writers, scholars, they are investing a lot of efforts into the rediscovery or reconstruction of Chinese history. OK, so that's my short presentation. I could go on a long time, or I could read you my whole chapter, but I won't do that. I'm sure you have a lot of questions. I'll do my best to answer your questions. However, I need to warn you that I'm actually not an expert on Chinese popular music. So there may be things that I don't know, but I will try my best. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions? You spoke a little bit about the academic reaction to the film. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about the kind of general public's reaction in terms of particularly younger audience members. So do you have any idea how they responded to the film? I have looked at some online responses. That's the only source of response I have access to. I think there are still a range of responses. Now, some people are really surprised by this history. And they are glad to discover it. But then there are other people who have this gut reaction against this kind of portrayal of the colonial era as an era that is worth reminiscing and remembering and cherishing even. So I would say the public response mirrors the academic response in terms of the spectrum. Any questions? I did hear something mumbling at the back. Oh, sorry, Michael. Please. Study of the Occasional British History of Irritance reports that around 1937, there was quite a cultural split between the younger and older generations. The older generation being pretty negative to the Japanese, especially those that could remember even the pre-1895. But the younger generation, it is said, there was a move that they were hoping for victory over China so that they could then go to the Chinese mainland as Japanese pro-consuls with the Chinese language and have a rather good career. The other point I might make is that it was before, well before the Kominka period, there were repressive measures. For example, first of all, the Chinese newspapers as such were banned, the Chinese language paper. Then they allowed a Chinese language supplement to be added to the Japanese newspapers. And then finally, that was thrown out. And this was all quite early on in the 1930s. So there's plenty of evidence that it wasn't just the Kominka period. Yeah, I appreciate that comment. I use the Kominka period sort of as a shorthand. And in fact, as you mentioned, there were all these policies before 1937 that were developing that suppressed the use of Chinese language. In fact, after 1937, even during the Kominka period, it wasn't as if there was a universal ban on Chinese language either. In some places, it was still possible to use Chinese language. And for example, in Taiwanese opera, even though the opera troops, they could no longer perform the very traditional form of opera, they actually developed a kind of hybrid opera that makes Chinese, I mean, Chinese or Chinese language, as well as Japanese and Western music. It's called Opeha. Opeha, I don't know how to say it. Opeha, yeah. So when we talk about the Kominka period, it sort of functions as a shorthand, but it's very crude. If you are serious in historical life yourself, then you would actually look at the development, the complexity of the policies over time, yes? The other thing is to mention, if I may, that there was the attempt to establish the Shinto religion and the building of Shrine, building of Shrine, which was pretty much a complete failure. Showing the resilience of the Taiwanese. Thank you. And in fact, there is a footage in there showing a traditional Chinese temple. And when they showed the footage, they actually superimposed one of the essays written by this lyricist, Chinese lyricist Chen Junyu on top of it. And he was talking about how it is important for the lyricists to write for the people. And it was very interesting that they chose the footage showing an indigenous type of religion or a temple to go along with that essay. Thank you. We can take another question. Anyone? Yes, Paul. Thanks. I really enjoyed the film. And I just wondered what other bits or examples of popular culture, such as television or radio or, I don't know, literatures that would be mediated by this, by a demands of colonial modernity, if you call it. Mm-hmm. Well, there were lots and lots of things that were being mediated through Japan. And who was consuming it? Who was consuming it? Well, for example, in terms of literature, a lot of Taiwanese writers during the time, they learned about Western literature, including Marxism through Japanese sources. So Japan was not just a oppressive colonizer. It was also, as you said, it was helping some of the Taiwanese intellectuals to get in touch with some of the most progressive thinking in the world during that time. So it has this ambiguous or double role as both oppressive exploiter that extracts a lot of natural resources from Taiwan and the Enlightener. So a lot of Taiwanese intellectuals during this time felt conflicted about it. And then what was the other? In terms of radio and other mass media, that I do not know quite as well. I'm not sure. Yeah. I'm not really sure what kind of radio program was available during this era. Surely there was no television during this period. OK. Now, in terms of the printed media, in terms of newspapers, it was, for a while, the major newspapers, some of them at least, they published a Japanese-language edition, also a Chinese-language edition. The more educated Taiwanese intellectuals, if they received some kind of Japanese-language education, they could write in either medium. So I don't know if that answers your question. Thank you for this wonderful talk and the lovely introduction of the film. Thank you. Thank you.