1 Introduction
Since the 1950s, Taiwanese cinema has seen a gradual renaissance of the film industry fuelled by a boom in Taiwanese-language films, experiencing the revitalisation of Mandarin-language films, healthy realism films advocated by the government, accompanied by the popularity of Qiong Yao’s romantic melodramas, and interspersed with the short-lived emergence of genres such as social realist film and crime film, Taiwanese cinema has ushered in the epochal new wave of cinema-Taiwan New Cinema. After a brief period of splendour, Taiwanese cinema entered a trough. In 2008, Cape No. 7 blew the trumpet for the revitalisation of Taiwanese cinema, and with the unfolding of commercialisation and genre incorporating indigeneity, Taiwanese cinema seemed to have found a marketable mode of development. Entering the 2020s, experiencing the impact of globalisation and neo-liberalism, and wrapped up in the post-epidemic and artificial intelligence era, Taiwan’s film industry is showing new development to varying degrees.
Gender-related issues have always occupied an important place in post-war Taiwanese cinema, with some films particularly featuring women as protagonists, and discussions on women’s issues are commonplace (Wang, 2020). Due to the profound influence of a patriarchal society, men dominate Taiwan’s society and culture, which in turn has led to insufficient discussion and attention to masculinity and male roles to circumvent the hindrance of male hegemony in progressive political space (Cho, 2024). In 2019, Taiwan legislated to endorse same-sex marriage (Kong, 2023). Taiwan’s gender affirmative action is at the forefront of Asia, which makes Taiwanese society more encompassing and open to queer people, and indirectly fuels attention to queer themes in the cultural field, presenting a very lively scene from visual presentation to academic discussion. Gender domination and resistance, gender oppression and liberation make gender a field of power (Duan, 2013, p. 6, my translation). Gender power involves individuals and groups of different genders, such as women, men, and gay and lesbian (queer). Especially in the new century, the portrayal of gender power in film has become more diverse and hybrid. However, the study of gender power in film has not been able to match the richness of the images. In particular, a notable gap exists in the study of gender power in cinema during the 2020s. Therefore, a literature review and analysis of the study of gender power in cinema can provide important references for the next direction of research.
Since the beginning of Taiwan New Cinema, Taiwanese films have received wider attention in the international market. In regional film studies, Taiwanese cinema is also a hotspot for research. It is again the Taiwan New Cinema that has received the most attention, with auteur film being widely discussed (Pickowicz and Zhang, 2020). Before the 1990s, a systematic compilation of gender representations in Taiwanese cinema according to a temporal spectrum focused mainly on female figures (Wang, 2020). With the rise and fall of Taiwan’s LGBT movement and the staged victory of marriage affirmation, attention to gay and lesbian (queer) themes has gradually climbed (Hsu, 2021; Sun, 2023; Tseng, 2024). Sex, age, class, and ethnicity have complex and contradictory entanglements with gender power (Duan, 2013, p. 67, my translation). Taiwan’s cinema has a long history of attention to class and ethnicity (Wang, 2020; Chao, 2020a; Fu, 2023; Hsieh, 2024; Tseng, 2024). As the impact of globalization began to increase the number of migrant workers in Taiwan, the intertwining of foreign immigrants and gender power began to be presented in images, which led to more discussion (Wang, 2020; Hsieh, 2024). There is also a part of the population that tends to be marginalized in real life and does not dominate in the presentation of images, so they are often overlooked. More attention should be paid to people with disabilities, especially the portrayal of their gender power in images (Tseng, 2024). These studies have adopted qualitative research methods. However, the existing research on gender power in Taiwanese cinema is still loose and unsystematic, and the research since the 2020s is even more blank.
This paper employs CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme) Checklist: For Qualitative Research ensure trustworthiness (Critical Appraisal Skills Programme, 2024) and basic content analysis as a research method (Drisko and Maschi, 2016). Focusing on the period 2020-2024, this study examines five years of literature concerning gender power dynamics in Taiwanese cinema, with particular emphasis on women, men, and gay and lesbian (queer) gender groups within films. Relevant literature indicates that research on gender power concerns intersects with class, ethnicity, immigration, disability, and sexuality. The temporal scope of the research samples (based on film release dates) spans from the 1950s to the 2020s.
