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Taiwanese-American director S. Leo Chiang's 19 minute-long
"Island in Between", available to watch on YouTube, tells the
story of Kinmen, a small island group which hugs the Chinese
coast.
Kinmen has been controlled by Taiwan since the Chinese civil war
ended in 1949, and was the site of pitched battles in the 1950s
as Beijing launched waves of attacks.
Chiang told Reuters he felt the time was right to revisit the
history of Kinmen, now a popular tourist destination, given
China's sabre rattling over Taiwan, including war games in 2022
after then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei.
China says democratically governed Taiwan is part of its
territory, despite the objections of the government in Taipei.
"I think people are more interested in Taiwan than ever, at
least in a long, long time. We're definitely taking advantage of
that interest," Chiang said.
"Life is very normal here. People are not exactly sitting around
fretting and pulling their hair out. But in Kinmen it's a
different story."
Old bunkers and buildings riddled with bullet holes stand
testament to Kinmen's battle-scarred past, and the film opens
with an abandoned tank half submerged under the sand on a beach,
its gun pointing out to sea. Martial law only ended on the
islands in 1992, five years later than Taiwan.
Chiang, whose father did his military service on Kinmen in 1968,
said he aimed to use the island as a visual representation of
the tensions with China, but also to ultimately tell a story
about what it means to be Taiwanese.
"At least for me, I still embrace my Chinese cultural and
historical and ethnic connection, but in terms of national
identity I'm very vocal about being Taiwanese," he added.
"Island in Between" is nominated for best documentary short
film. The Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 10.
As for his next project, Chiang said he was considering making a
film about the late, staunchly anti-Communist Taiwanese singer
Teresa Teng, whose songs were broadcast at China from giant loud
speakers on Kinmen and remain wildly popular throughout the
Chinese-speaking world.
"I don't think people understand how iconic she was," he said.
(Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Fabian Hamacher; editing by
Miral Fahmy)
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