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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2024
Abstract: The oppositional gaze informs the practice of women documentarists working across transnational China and the Chinese diaspora. Made in the wake of Taiwan’s Sunflower Movement, Fu Yue’s Our Youth in Taiwan (2018) reflects on the political development of its female director as she engages with the subjects of her documentary. Tan Pin Pin’s To Singapore, with Love (2013) focuses on exiles from Singapore who ran afoul of the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP). Bringing together Our Youth in Taiwan and To Singapore, with Love highlights these filmmakers’ use of the oppositional gaze to reflect on youth, gender, and the historical archive. Both films reference the past archive to make sense of government actions and citizens’ reactions in the present.
Keywords: Archive fever; Tian’anmen Square; June Fourth; Sunflower Movement; epistolary; accented cinema
The year 2014 witnessed waves of protests across the Chinese-speaking world. In addition to Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement, labor actions and land disputes in mainland China as well as the Sunflower Movement in Taiwan testify to overlapping concerns for economic justice, democratic reforms, and autonomy from the authorities in Beijing. Just as Outcry and Whisper connects Guangdong and Hong Kong through feminism and labor activism, Our Youth in Taiwan links the Umbrella and Sunflower Movements to student discontent in mainland China through its focus on youth. The climactic occupation of Taiwan’s Legislative Yuan in Taipei shown in Our Youth in Taiwan (2018) parallels the storming of Hong Kong’s Legislative Council (LegCo) in 2014 and the occupation of the chamber in 2019. The dramatic similarities of mass street protests, passionate student leaders, social media, and digital documentation link the Sunflower Movement to Hong Kong’s demonstrations.
Taiwan and Hong Kong share a history of colonialism, decades of separation from mainland China, and a continuing contentious relationship to Beijing authorities. Mainland Chinese calls for political change, particularly the spring 1989 protests in and around Tian’anmen Square, resonate across Hong Kong and Taiwan. The violent suppression of the Tian’anmen Square demonstrations on June 4, 1989, haunts activists across the Chinese-speaking world.
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