Taiwan New Cinema
film movement
Taiwan New Cinema (also known as New Taiwanese Cinema or the Taiwan New Wave) was a film reform movement initiated by young Taiwanese filmmakers and directors which took place from 1982 to 1987. Taiwan New Cinema films primarily showcase a realistic style with their depictions of subject matter close to the social reality, offering a retrospective look into the lives of the common people. Taiwan New Cinema brought about a new chapter for the cinema of Taiwan with its innovative form and unique style.
History
Before Taiwan New Cinema
Political propaganda (1945–1960)
On August 15, 1945, Taiwan was liberated from Japanese rule after Japan unconditionally surrendered. The Republic of China's Nationalist government took over Taiwan and abolished the Japanization implemented by the Japanese rule, including the Japanization of spoken languages in Taiwan. The Nationalist government started the promotion of Mandarin. In 1949, the Chinese Civil War between the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) ended with the CCP taking control of mainland China, while the Nationalist Kuomintang Party retreated to Taiwan.
In the 1950s, to comply with the government's political agenda, the three major state-owned film studios (Taiwan Film Culture Co., the China Motion Picture Studio, and the Agricultural Education Film Studio) underwent structural reform. Subsequently, through the restrictions imposed by censorship and ideological regulation, the government fully managed and controlled the film industry. During this period, Taiwanese films largely aligned with the anti-communist and anti-Soviet political ideology and became tools for political propaganda, resulting in mediocre content.
The public source identifies “Taiwan New Cinema” as film movement. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Taiwan, Cinema and film.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11411984. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1987, 1945 and 1960.
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This entry incorporates text from “Taiwan New Cinema” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.