The Golden Horse Awards, popularly known as the Chinese Oscars, are a big deal in Asian cinema. The 55th edition, held in Taiwan last month, saw Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee chairing the executive committee and Memoirs of a Geisha star Gong Li heading the jury. But no award ceremony is complete without a controversy. When 36-year-old director Fu Yue took to the Taipei stage to receive the Best Documentary prize, she announced her hope that Taiwan “can be treated as a truly independent entity. This is my greatest wish as a Taiwanese person.” There was cheering but also visible discomfort among the dignitaries, and the broadcast was brought to an abrupt end on the mainland.
Chinese nationalist netizens quickly vaulted the great firewall of China to express their disapproval of Yue’s comments on Facebook (banned in China) while on stage veteran Chinese actor Tu Men pointedly referred to the island as “Taiwan, China”, Beijing’s preferred formula. The next day, Taiwanese president Tsai Ing-wen praised the director but on the mainland many called for China to boycott next year’s ceremony.
The affair is only the latest upset in a turbulent year for the Chinese film industry. In July, Fan Bingbing, one of the most famous actresses in the country, went missing for three months. Then, later that month, the most expensive film ever made in China, the $113m Asura, an effects-heavy retelling of a traditional Buddhist tale, was yanked from screens after a dismal opening weekend. In Beijing, movie production has stalled since the arrival in March of a new censorship regime — the Film Bureau — to promote “core socialist values”, and a clampdown on tax evasion was introduced in the aftermath of the Fan affair.