2 PERSPECTIVES ON BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS | VOL 43 | 2025 Kōminka films encouraged Taiwanese people to identify as Japanese and show loyalty to the emperor and the imperial state (Wen, 2018). Despite the strong assimilation efforts, the colonial government tolerated the importation of Chinese films into the 1930s but heavily censored films with Taiwanese participation in their production (Kellner, 1998; Neri, 2015). When the Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937, importing foreign films into Taiwan was prohibited (Neri, 2015). Two years later, in 1939, the Regulations of the Handling Motion Pictures Film Inspection Rule was implemented in Taiwan, modeled on the Film Law passed in Japan the same year, mandating that all scripts be inspected before film production and distribution. The law also required theaters to show Japanese-produced newsreels and culture films (bunka eiga) as part of each feature film program (High, 1986). As a result, until the end of the World War II, Taiwan cinema was almost entirely in the service of Imperial Japan, reinforcing a narrative of assimilation that would later contribute to Taiwan’s ongoing struggles with collective identity (Lee, 2012). The Sinicization of Taiwanese cinema, 1949–1987 After Japan’s defeat in World War II, Taiwan was handed over to the Republic of China. Kuomintang (KMT), the ruling party on the mainland, took control of the island with a repressive regime. The local Taiwanese population soon became resentful of the corrupt conduct of the authorities. Tensions culminated on February 28, 1947, when an uprising against KMT was violently suppressed, resulting in mass casualties. This event, which later became known as the 228 Incident, had a profound effect on Taiwanese cinema, especially during the New Wave era. After its defeat by the Chinese Communist Party on the mainland in 1949, KMT retreated to Taiwan and declared martial law, ushering in a period of authoritarian rule known as the White Terror. KMT sought to consolidate power, suppress dissent, and Sinicize Taiwan following 50 years of Japanese rule. A major shift occurred in the linguistic and cultural landscape of Taiwanese cinema during this period. The government heavily promoted Mandarin-language films, even though few people on the island spoke Mandarin at the time, reinforcing the state’s vision of a singular Chinese identity. Local audiences and filmmakers rejected the push for dominance of Mandarin-language cinema, resulting in the emergence of Taiwanese-language cinema (taiyupian) in the late 1950s (Berry, 2022). By 1969, there were 1052 taiyupian productions made in Taiwan versus only 373 Mandarin-language films, pointing to a continued resilience of linguistic and cultural identity despite government efforts to impose a certain national narrative (Zhang, 2013). The popular genre in the 1960s comprised “social news” films, which were based on real-life events and in the interest of sensationalism featured graphic images of homicides and violence. The social news genre is distinct from thrillers and horror but incorporates elements of both. As such, it served as a stepping stone for Taiwanese director Hsin Chi to pioneer the genre of gothic romance with a taiyu film, The Bride Who Has Returned from Hell (1965). Among known taiyupian directors, Hsin is the most often discussed by scholars (Berry et al., 2024). His feature film, Alias Lover (1965), was the first science fiction horror taiyu film (Rawnsley, 2013). Hsin was also innovative in his use of spatiality to illustrate conflicting values. This was already a common technique in taiyupian, used to reflect underlying tensions such as the dichotomy between Taiwan’s agrarian past and rapid urbanization. Hsin’s work, however, engaged more directly with anxieties surrounding cultural transformation (Lin, 2024). Instead of the traditional urban-rural contrast, Hsin juxtaposed a decayed, haunted Buddhist shrine with an opulent, Western-style mansion to emphasize the growing tensions between tradition and modernity and between local heritage and globalization. By then, horror had gained footing in taiyupian but mostly in the form of opera (Liu, 2021), consistent with early horror in mainland China, where theatrical performances often served as a medium for supernatural storytelling. Taiwanese-language operas, however, distinguished themselves by drawing heavily from local Taiwanese folklore in contrast to studios from Hong Kong and the mainland, which idealized imperial China and leveraged a familiar aesthetic and Chinese music to relieve cultural anxieties and evoke nostalgia (Chen, 2016). As the 1960s progressed, filmmakers like Yao Feng-Pan emerged as pivotal figures in the horror genre in Taiwan (Liu, 2021). Yao produced a series of Mandarin horror films, which drew on traditional Chinese ghost stories. Facing a drop in revenue, Yao realized that audiences grew tired of elements of Chinese culture (Liu, 2021). He turned instead to Taiwan’s customs, religious beliefs, and local criminal cases. He produced The Ghost Lover (1976), based on a Taiwanese marriage ritual; The Old Lock (1977), based on a crime that occurred in Keelung in 1934; and The Tale of Old House (1979), based on traditional Taiwanese burial customs.
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