英文摘要 |
Against cultural and political conservatism of mainstream commercial films in the 1970s, Taiwan New Cinema’s thematic search for a lost self in national terms and artistically-oriented aesthetics have made it long be recognized as the epitome of national cinema of Taiwan. It is also the central point of reference in constructing the history of Taiwan cinema, exemplified by such terms as the “second wave Taiwan New Cinema” and “post-Taiwan New Cinema.” The over presence of Taiwan New Cinema, however, has structured a slanted film history of Taiwan that underlines the exclusive importance of national cinema that foregrounds art-house style and concerns for male-centered and heterodominant nationhood. Accordingly, the contemporaries of Taiwan New Cinema have been by and large forgotten, including films that deal with homosexual subject-matter. This paper excavates three neglected homosexual films—Girls’ School (Li Mei-mi, 1982), The Outsiders (Yu Kan-ping, 1986), and The Silent Thrush (Zheng Sheng-fu, 1991)— made around the same time as Taiwan New Cinema and before the tongzhi rights discourse has affected the realm of cultural representations. I argue that the ways in which these films approach, engage and negotiate issues of homosexuality have to be understood as part of a genealogy of tongzhi representation despite the fact that they may seem shoddy, lowbrow and stereotypical. They need to be contextualized and perceived as indicative of a particular struggle of the representation of homosexuality, and it is from this perspective that these early homosexual films are important to the cinematic imagination and construction of Taiwan that deserve to go down in the history of Taiwanese cinema. |