The Regulated Body and Resistance Within: Exploring Artist Films on the White Terror in Taiwan
This paper explores how modern Taiwanese artists employ film to depict the
evolution of Taiwanese identity during Martial Law (1949-1987) through the
works of filmmakers Yao Jui-Chung and Su Hui-Yu. Yao Jui-Chung satirizes
Taiwan's martial law dictators and their fascist language, while Su Hui-Yu
examines repression and retaliation against sexuality and the female body in
martial law-era films through multi-modal film installations. With the lifting of
martial law in 1987, political and bodily repression has gradually eased, enabling
art to tackle taboo subjects and aesthetics. Yao Jui-Chung's Phantom of History
(2007) and Long Live (2013) mimic dictators' body language and national
ideology, revealing how national consciousness was operated and formed during
the era. Su Hui-Yu re-shoots martial law period films to scrutinize sexual
repression and gender violence. Su’s films Super Taboo (2016), The Glamorous
Boys of Tang (2018) and The Women’s Revenge (2020-21) revisit historical films
and novels wherein bodies, sexuality, and gender are subjugated to anti-
communist ideology.
These artist films embody characteristics of border-crossing as well as of the
ephemeral sense of non-fixed identity and contingency, such as film's migration
from movie theatre to the museum or the various temporal and spatial
modalities of film installation, namely, multiform narrative. It is paramount that
in exploring each of these transformations, I remain attentive to the colonial,
fascist, and military backdrop, which lurks in the background while maintaining
focus on the history of Martial Law and the Cold War condition as a central
heuristic.
evolution of Taiwanese identity during Martial Law (1949-1987) through the
works of filmmakers Yao Jui-Chung and Su Hui-Yu. Yao Jui-Chung satirizes
Taiwan's martial law dictators and their fascist language, while Su Hui-Yu
examines repression and retaliation against sexuality and the female body in
martial law-era films through multi-modal film installations. With the lifting of
martial law in 1987, political and bodily repression has gradually eased, enabling
art to tackle taboo subjects and aesthetics. Yao Jui-Chung's Phantom of History
(2007) and Long Live (2013) mimic dictators' body language and national
ideology, revealing how national consciousness was operated and formed during
the era. Su Hui-Yu re-shoots martial law period films to scrutinize sexual
repression and gender violence. Su’s films Super Taboo (2016), The Glamorous
Boys of Tang (2018) and The Women’s Revenge (2020-21) revisit historical films
and novels wherein bodies, sexuality, and gender are subjugated to anti-
communist ideology.
These artist films embody characteristics of border-crossing as well as of the
ephemeral sense of non-fixed identity and contingency, such as film's migration
from movie theatre to the museum or the various temporal and spatial
modalities of film installation, namely, multiform narrative. It is paramount that
in exploring each of these transformations, I remain attentive to the colonial,
fascist, and military backdrop, which lurks in the background while maintaining
focus on the history of Martial Law and the Cold War condition as a central
heuristic.