Fu Yue showed courage at the Golden Horse Awards: Taiwan should be able to call itself a country
- The Taiwanese director has cut herself off from the world’s biggest film market for daring to say that Taiwan should be seen as a separate entity from China
The 36-year-old Taiwanese director, Fu Yue, said her “greatest wish” was for “our country to be seen as a truly independent entity”, in her acceptance speech after she received the highest honour in documentary filmmaking at the Golden Horse film awards ceremony, the Chinese world’s equivalent of the Oscars.
I am very impressed by what she did, as she has completely shut herself from the biggest film market in the world, which could have brought her a lot of money. Instead of aspiring to be rich and famous by courting the entire Chinese community, she chose to grasp the opportunity to stand up for her homeland, knowing it would trigger the wrath of China.
In response, Chinese stars protested Fu’s pro-independence remarks by posting a map of China that included Taiwan and commenting, “China, not a single dot missing”. There are also concerns that the awards will face a boycott from Chinese celebrities next year.