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Taiwan artist hopes film ends Tiananmen exile
2006-06-03
Taiwanese singer and song writer Hou Dejian was given red carpet treatment when he defected to China at the peak of his career in 1983. But China expelled the idol of millions for backing the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests, which were crushed by troops and tanks on June 4 that year with heavy loss of life. Today, the 49-year-old composer-turned-filmmaker hopes a $66 million martial arts fantasy film he has scripted will help end his exile from the mainland. Days before the Tiananmen crackdown, Hou joined three Chinese friends in a hunger strike in support of student demonstrators. Hou found himself negotiating with soldiers who had shot their way from the outskirts of the capital to the square's edge and surrounded hundreds of protesters huddling in its center and waiting to die. He helped secure their passage but went into hiding at the Australian Embassy to avoid arrest. Later, Hou was given a choice by Chinese authorities -- go back to Taiwan or go to jail. He chose the former and was put on a fishing boat and deported, not to return. While the English-language movie "Lady White Snake" is aimed at Western audiences, Hou hopes the film will be shown across China ahead of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. "I hope to go back when this movie is shown on the mainland. The key to whether I can return is Beijing's attitude," Hou, chairman of Equinox Film Co. Ltd., told Reuters in Taipei. Pending approval of a grant from the Taiwan government, shooting could begin as early as September on the movie, based on a Chinese legend about a snake fairy who falls in love with a scholar and battles a Taoist priest with magical powers. Hou expects the movie featuring computer-generated special effects and big name foreign and Taiwan actors could net box office receipts of up to 300 million yuan ($38 million) in China. RECIPE FOR SUCCESS? Hou was encouraged when fellow Taiwanese Ang Lee won the Oscar for best director in March for the gay cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain," and by the success of Disney animated film "Mulan" -- based on Chinese folklore about a girl who posed as a boy and fought for the emperor in place of her elderly father. "I chose 'Legend of the White Snake' because it was the first Chinese folklore to be translated into English," Hou said. He won the best writer award at the 1994 Asian Pacfic Film Festival in Sydney for "Moonlight Boy," about a boy in a coma for 30 years but whose spirit roamed around his home unaware that a road accident had left him bedridden. The eldest of five children, Hou was admitted into one of Taiwan's top universities in the 1970s, and majored in accounting before switching to Chinese literature and then dropping out. He composed his first hit song in 1976 at the age of 20. Three years later, his "Heirs of the Dragon" became the biggest best-selling single in the Chinese-speaking world. But Taiwan authorities pressured him to rewrite the lyrics and make it a patriotic song. Hou refused, and defected to China. "I didn't dare say no to (then president) Chiang Ching-kuo days before our breakfast meeting. But I didn't want to rewrite it. Hence, I left," said Hou, dressed casually in a white T-shirt and a beige jacket. "I also went to find inspiration for my music ... and search for my roots," he said in an interview. Hou's ballad was banned in Taiwan after his defection but the curb has been lifted since. PERMANENT GUEST But Hou's China stay worsened his identity crisis. "I was born in Taiwan but Taiwanese said I was from another province. When I returned to the mainland, mainlanders called me a Taiwan compatriot," he said. "I'm a permanent guest." He found himself looking for a place to call home again after the Tiananmen crackdown. Back in democratic Taiwan, Hou was greeted with indifference -- he was spared imprisonment for defecting but was either forgotten or unknown. He has since found refuge from politics in film. "My political work has reached a stage and been completed," said Hou. "I'm not interested in power but that doesn't mean I don't care about politics." And if the filmmaker goes to China in 2008, he will buy a round trip ticket.
Taiwan artist hopes film ends Tiananmen exile (2006-06-03)1 (11285)
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