Chris Knipp
07-14-2024, 10:41 PM
http://www.chrisknipp.com/images/%20tsiing.jpg
TSI ING-WEN IN INVISIBLE NATION
VANESSA HOPE: INVISIBLE NATION (2023)
The woman who was the first to use the word "Taiwan" in the international context
Vanessa Hope's documentary film is about Tsi Ing-wen, the first female president of the Republic of Taiwan, a country in a dangerous, pivotal position in the power conflict between China and the United States. In difficult "cross-strait" relations, the giant China is always wanting to take over the little Taiwan, whose existence as a separate country, even whose name, it refuses to recognize and whose strategic position it covets. The first thing to note is that Tsi Ing-wen is a very smart lady, a tough cookie, and a cool customer. But she won the presidency because of the younger generation, and all the Taiwanese that wanted their country to be firm and independent from China.
Where did she come from? how did this woman become the leader of this 20-million population? I'm not sure all that is answered in this no-nonsense civics lesson of a film. She studied law in Taiwan, then at Cornel and London School of Economics. She worked her way up over many years in Taiwanese politics, then in US fashion served two four-year terms as Taiwan's President, 2016-2020 and 2020-2024, during the last of which this film was made. She was ranked ninth on Forbes's most powerful women list in 2021, being the second-highest ranking female politician after Kamala Harris. On Monday, May 18, 2024, Tsai handed the baton to her former premier and vice president Lai Ching-te, who was sworn in as Taiwan's new president after winning the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) an unprecedented third term in January.
Accounts of Taiwan often gloss over the fact that after centuries of domination, when it became independent after WWII, it was under martial law for forty years. This is downplayed here too. The freedoms all had to come after the late eighties, and are all the more remarkable for the long period of authoritarian rule. The P.R.C. (China)'s threat of domination that has closed like a grim vice over Hong Kong (we glimpse that sad episode here) hovers over the small island country, which chose democracy and independence at last. Lee Teng-hui has been a strong and important leader of Taiwan - which was hardly ever allowed to be called that name internationally, such as at the Olympics, due to China's refusing to acknowledge it as an independent country.
Hope's film takes an early seeming digression to cover Freddy Lim, lead singer of the band Chthonic, which delivers heavy metal declarations of independence and condemnation of the oppressor. Speaking to the camera, now an independent legislator, Freddy explains that Taiwan has its own culture, independent of that of Mainland China. Jason Chu of the Chinese Nationalist Party explains that from the seventies and eighties Taiwan became "sort of the powerhouse of [the] global supply chain" starting with semiconductors and other high tech products.
Taiwan is disproportionally important for its size. My frame of reference is film. It has made its mark there. Though it may make fewer films than Japan, South Korea, or China, its cinematic productions are extremely interesting. It has also produced some disproportionately significant and varied filmmakers. (Think Ang Lee, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Tsai Ming-liang.) While China has worked hard in recent years to make it tough for Taiwan, successfully pressuring some of Taiwan's traditional allies to abandon them, Taiwan is emerging as uniquely progressive: It is, for example, the first country in Asia to recognize same-sex marriage,. Hsiao Bi-khim, the de facto Taiwan ambassador to the US, speaks on this and other topics.
There is a lot about China, which has become more belligerent toward Taiwan. Xi Jinping is seen, in clips, giving impressively totalitarian-looking speeches before massive seated captive audiences declaring that Taiwan belongs to China and that it will use force to assert this if it wants to. It's pointed out here that in fact Taiwan has never in history been under the power of China - a fact worth remembering, when we hear these repeated claims. Nancy Pelosi, whose visit to Taiwan was so provocative to China, says in a trenchant interview that, we, the US, have always "kow-towed to China" (appropriate term indeed!) "and that is why we are where we are now." (Indeed!)
Tsi Ing-wen presides over military operations, planned as defensive if China attacks Taiwan. Tsi Ing-wen visits the US. But Taiwan remains excluded under Chinese pressure from nation status. She declares Taiwan is not going to declare itself to be an independent country because it already considers itself to be one. When COVIID-19 arrived, Taiwan was not provided with medical information, excluded from WHO (and UN membership), though Taiwan has been one of the most successful country in the world at combatting the pandemic. So we have the paradox of a model country that has never been more under international threat. They see what has happened with Russia and Ukraine, and they don't want it to be repeated with China and Taiwan.
Director Hope has succeeded in wrangling all this information while acquiring unprecedented access in parson to her personal subject, Tsi Ing-wen, and other key experts and officials. The film has been accused of being hagiographic, dry, and overstuffed and not asking enough questions. I did not feel this, but it is basic and formal, and it sometimes seems to transition abruptly from one thing to another. A little bit more on Taiwan's manufacturing and culture productivity would have been nice. But this is a lot about an important subject with remarkable access.
Richard Kuipers in his Variety review (https://variety.com/2024/film/asia/invisible-nation-review-1235874663/) says, truly, that this film has "no fancy flourishes" but is "strong, effective observational documentary filmmaking" that employs no voiceover or text narration and "allows viewers to form their own views." If only instructional films could be this good.
Invisible Nation, 85 mins., debuted at Woodstock Sept. 2023; also Mill Valley, SFIFF, Hamptons, New Hampshire, numerous other festivals. US release May 31, 2024.
TSI ING-WEN IN INVISIBLE NATION
VANESSA HOPE: INVISIBLE NATION (2023)
The woman who was the first to use the word "Taiwan" in the international context
Vanessa Hope's documentary film is about Tsi Ing-wen, the first female president of the Republic of Taiwan, a country in a dangerous, pivotal position in the power conflict between China and the United States. In difficult "cross-strait" relations, the giant China is always wanting to take over the little Taiwan, whose existence as a separate country, even whose name, it refuses to recognize and whose strategic position it covets. The first thing to note is that Tsi Ing-wen is a very smart lady, a tough cookie, and a cool customer. But she won the presidency because of the younger generation, and all the Taiwanese that wanted their country to be firm and independent from China.
Where did she come from? how did this woman become the leader of this 20-million population? I'm not sure all that is answered in this no-nonsense civics lesson of a film. She studied law in Taiwan, then at Cornel and London School of Economics. She worked her way up over many years in Taiwanese politics, then in US fashion served two four-year terms as Taiwan's President, 2016-2020 and 2020-2024, during the last of which this film was made. She was ranked ninth on Forbes's most powerful women list in 2021, being the second-highest ranking female politician after Kamala Harris. On Monday, May 18, 2024, Tsai handed the baton to her former premier and vice president Lai Ching-te, who was sworn in as Taiwan's new president after winning the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) an unprecedented third term in January.
Accounts of Taiwan often gloss over the fact that after centuries of domination, when it became independent after WWII, it was under martial law for forty years. This is downplayed here too. The freedoms all had to come after the late eighties, and are all the more remarkable for the long period of authoritarian rule. The P.R.C. (China)'s threat of domination that has closed like a grim vice over Hong Kong (we glimpse that sad episode here) hovers over the small island country, which chose democracy and independence at last. Lee Teng-hui has been a strong and important leader of Taiwan - which was hardly ever allowed to be called that name internationally, such as at the Olympics, due to China's refusing to acknowledge it as an independent country.
Hope's film takes an early seeming digression to cover Freddy Lim, lead singer of the band Chthonic, which delivers heavy metal declarations of independence and condemnation of the oppressor. Speaking to the camera, now an independent legislator, Freddy explains that Taiwan has its own culture, independent of that of Mainland China. Jason Chu of the Chinese Nationalist Party explains that from the seventies and eighties Taiwan became "sort of the powerhouse of [the] global supply chain" starting with semiconductors and other high tech products.
Taiwan is disproportionally important for its size. My frame of reference is film. It has made its mark there. Though it may make fewer films than Japan, South Korea, or China, its cinematic productions are extremely interesting. It has also produced some disproportionately significant and varied filmmakers. (Think Ang Lee, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Tsai Ming-liang.) While China has worked hard in recent years to make it tough for Taiwan, successfully pressuring some of Taiwan's traditional allies to abandon them, Taiwan is emerging as uniquely progressive: It is, for example, the first country in Asia to recognize same-sex marriage,. Hsiao Bi-khim, the de facto Taiwan ambassador to the US, speaks on this and other topics.
There is a lot about China, which has become more belligerent toward Taiwan. Xi Jinping is seen, in clips, giving impressively totalitarian-looking speeches before massive seated captive audiences declaring that Taiwan belongs to China and that it will use force to assert this if it wants to. It's pointed out here that in fact Taiwan has never in history been under the power of China - a fact worth remembering, when we hear these repeated claims. Nancy Pelosi, whose visit to Taiwan was so provocative to China, says in a trenchant interview that, we, the US, have always "kow-towed to China" (appropriate term indeed!) "and that is why we are where we are now." (Indeed!)
Tsi Ing-wen presides over military operations, planned as defensive if China attacks Taiwan. Tsi Ing-wen visits the US. But Taiwan remains excluded under Chinese pressure from nation status. She declares Taiwan is not going to declare itself to be an independent country because it already considers itself to be one. When COVIID-19 arrived, Taiwan was not provided with medical information, excluded from WHO (and UN membership), though Taiwan has been one of the most successful country in the world at combatting the pandemic. So we have the paradox of a model country that has never been more under international threat. They see what has happened with Russia and Ukraine, and they don't want it to be repeated with China and Taiwan.
Director Hope has succeeded in wrangling all this information while acquiring unprecedented access in parson to her personal subject, Tsi Ing-wen, and other key experts and officials. The film has been accused of being hagiographic, dry, and overstuffed and not asking enough questions. I did not feel this, but it is basic and formal, and it sometimes seems to transition abruptly from one thing to another. A little bit more on Taiwan's manufacturing and culture productivity would have been nice. But this is a lot about an important subject with remarkable access.
Richard Kuipers in his Variety review (https://variety.com/2024/film/asia/invisible-nation-review-1235874663/) says, truly, that this film has "no fancy flourishes" but is "strong, effective observational documentary filmmaking" that employs no voiceover or text narration and "allows viewers to form their own views." If only instructional films could be this good.
Invisible Nation, 85 mins., debuted at Woodstock Sept. 2023; also Mill Valley, SFIFF, Hamptons, New Hampshire, numerous other festivals. US release May 31, 2024.