Friday, September 25, 2009

“Sublime Taiwan” in FEU

The Photo Exhibit - on exhibit at the FEU Administration building, starting September 24 will be the works of four Taiwanese photographers: Chi Po-lin: Soaring - an elevated vision of Natural Taiwan Though Nature presents us with a cornucopia of contrasting vistas, human beings' earth-bound scope of vision, after all, is too limited to appreciate the large-scale conformation of the land that nurtures them. At least, that is true of most human beings.

Photographer Chi Po-lin is the exception to the rule. He has developed a vision of Taiwan literally more elevated than that of the common person, who, by comparison, "can't see the forest for the trees." Over the past decade-plus, Chi has spent more than 1000 hours soaring - physically and spiritually - over the island in helicopters at altitudes between 300 feet and 14000 feet, snapping more than 200000 spectacular bird's eye images of its exalted, protean physiognomy. Even this small sampling of what Chi has seen from his eagle's perspective enables us to share his exhilaration at witnessing Taiwan as the huge, mysterious and wonderful creature it is.

Liu Chen-hsiang: Passion - Heavenly Feast of the Performing Arts
Taiwan's culturally diverse society supports a fascinating melange of drama and dance genres, whose lineages can be traced from sources as disparate as august palaces to common neighborhood temple grounds, and whose form and flavor range from the highly sophisticated and complex to the simple and down to earth.
A long-time photographic chronicler of Taiwan 's dance and traditional drama scenes, Liu Chen-hsiang has dedicated himself to the challenge of adapting the photographic technologies and techniques to the myriad variables of dancers' and actors' motions, stage design and lighting. He is particularly admired for his knack for capturing in enduring images the fleeting bursts of emotional power by which artists of dance have animated the hearts and minds of people through the ages.

Huang Ting-sheng
Folkways - Melding the Mundane and the Celestial
Thanks to its ethnic diversity, Taiwan has become, in effect, a pantheon in which people with different religious traditions commune with a wide array of spirits and deities through solemn rituals and pilgrimages as well as through festive temple fairs and other activities. ver the past twenty-odd years, photographer Huang Ting-sheng has photographically recorded more than 500 religious festivals and rituals of the Taiwanese people. His passion for preserving images of such activities for posterity was sparked, initially, by the discovery that other interested observers mostly made only scholarly written works.

Chen Chih-hsiung
Interfaces - Rhythms of Nature and Humanity
Azure lakes, cobalt-blue seas, luxuriantly forested mountains, jade-green lowlands - such are the magnificent backdrops for life in Taiwan . With his profound passion for observing Nature and his keen appreciation of the flux of spatial and temporal conditions as well as of interactions between the land and its people, photographer Chen Chih-hsiung has compiled a vast album of lyrical portraits of Taiwan , the seasonal rhythms of its landscapes and seascapes, and the human contribution to its appearance.

 FEU Auditorium, Sublime Taiwan Photo Exhibit -September 24, 2009

People themed photographs will be on display September 24-25.
Landscape themed photographs will be on display September 25 - 28.

Far Eastern University presents this exhibit in cooperation with the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office, the President's Committee on Culture & the Institute of Architecture and Fine Arts

The Film Festival – coinciding with the opening of the exhibit was the Taiwanese Film Festival (Below is the schedule for screening):

September 24, 2009
10:30AM
Fishing Luck
Director: Tseng Wen-chen
Orchid Island lies off the southeast coast of Taiwan . It is home to the Tao people, an indigenous group who rely on the ocean to survive. The flying fish in the surrounding waters allow for this people to have a satisfying, though difficult life. Behong, Jeddah, and Qingkuang are the self styled "Three Musketeers" of Orchid Island . While they live simply, they are always looking to make some extra money. Their latest venture is renting out a used car they have refurbished and christened "Flying Fish One.' But their lives, and plans, are forever changed when Zing, a beautiful, quiet girl from Taiwan 's capital Taipei , flies in on a business trip.

1:30PM
Jump: Boys
Director: Lin Yu-hsien
These little boys come from different families and have unique characters and temperaments. They don't play computer games or hang out at McDonald's. Instead, they go straight to the gymnasium after school, which is about the only thing they have in common. The training is painstaking, yet they never quit. Are these kids our of their minds?

September 25, 2009
1:30 PM
Spring: The Story of Hsu Chin-yu
Awards:
2002 Best Documentary, Golden Harvest Awards
2003 Humanitarian Award for Documentary, 27th Hong Kong International Film Festival
During the White Terror of the 1950s, many patriotic young Taiwanese were arrested by the Nationalist government. They were accused of being "bandits", "Communists" or "traitors." Those executed or imprisoned numbered in the tens of thousands. One victim was Hsu Chin-yu. An adopted daughter of an ordinary Taipei family, she began working at the age of 14. At 24, she joined the labor movement. She subsequently spent 15 years in prison and her life would never be the same.

4:30 PM
Cape No. 7
Director: Wei Te-sheng
Awards:
2008 Winner, Grand Prize, Asian Marine Film Festival
2008 Winner, Best Narrative Feature, The 28th Hawaii International Film Festival
Official Taiwanese Selection for the 81st Academy Awards
Aga, an angst-filled ex-band leader, returns to his hometown of Hengchun and lands a job as a letter carrier. Into his hands falls a mysterious bundle of letters telling of a long-lost romance. Change wrought over the decades fights against Aga as he tries to make this delivery, as the package bears an address not used since World War II.

This film festival was brought up by Far Eastern University in cooperation with the Taipei Economic & Cultural Office, the President's Committee on Culture, the Department of Mass Communication & the FEU Film Society.

Note: All screenings are free and open to the public.
Call 736 4897 for details.

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