Taiwanese Cuisine: Intimate Politics in Film
October 21-22, 2011
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2011
5:00 – 7:00
Keynote lecture
Cuisine, Commerce and Cultural Poetics: Night Markets in Taiwan
Professor Scott Simon (Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Ottawa)
Night markets, adored by locals and tourists alike, are a vibrant part of social life in Taiwan and affordable places to experience “authentic” cuisine. Yet night markets are more than just food stands, entrepreneurs, and high-calorie snacks. They are stages for cultural poetics, where diverse national, cultural, ethnic, and gender identities are shaped, represented, and contested. Night markets embody the cultural poetics of the masses, just as film and literature represent the cultural poetics of the elite. What do night markets mean in Taiwan? This talk provides an anthropological approach to the study of Taiwan’s most loved culinary institutions.
Venue: North House - Room 208N, Munk School of Global Affairs, 1 Devonshire Place
Register Online at: http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?EventId=10526
8:00 – 10:20
Opening Night Welcome & Gala Screening
Welcome Remarks:
Professor Joseph Wong (Director, Asian Institute, University of Toronto)
Mr. Winston Chen (Director General, Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Toronto)
Professor Charlie Keil (Director, Cinema Studies Institute, University of Toronto)
Film Introduction:
Professor Bart Testa (Cinema Studies Institute, University of Toronto)
Gala Screening:
Night Market Hero (2011). First-time director-writer Yeh-Tien Lun sets his comedy-drama in a fictional but typical Taiwan night market (called “888”). At it seems to be a rollicking ensemble comedy involving the idiosyncratic stall-owners but the story soon develops into a melodrama involving real estate developers, city politics and family secrets. The film has proved to be a hit in Japan and China, as well as another indicator of the resurrection of popular Taiwan filmmaking.
Venue: Innis Town Hall, Innis College at the University of Toronto, 2 Sussex Street at St. George
10:20 – 12:00
After Party | Showcasing Taiwanese night market food
Venue: Innis Café, Innis College at the University of Toronto, 2 Sussex Street at St. George
Register Online at: http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?EventId=10766
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2011
2:30 – 4:40
Eat Drink Man Woman (1994)
Film Introduction:
Professor Bart Testa (Cinema Studies Institute, University of Toronto)
Eat Drink Man Woman was the third film in director Ang Lee’s “father trilogy” that launched his career as a Taiwan filmmaker -- from New York! It is the only one to be set in Taipei (the two previous movies were set in the U.S.) The plot concerns an widowed master chef Mr. Chu (Shing Lung, carried over from Lee’s The Wedding Banquet) who has decided to retire and looks after his three daughters and cooks them fantastic Sunday dinners, which become the narrative pivot for what at turns is a comedy and family drama – and the source of the film’s famous culinary spectacles.
Venue: Innis Town Hall, Innis College at the University of Toronto, 2 Sussex Street at St. George
Register Online at: http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?EventId=10767
5:00 – 7:00
Film Panel
Family Melodrama and Food Metaphors in Three Moments of Taiwanese Cinema
Panelists:
Professor Bart Testa (Cinema Studies Institute, University of Toronto)
Professor James Udden (Film Studies, Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania)
Professor Jing Jing Chang (Film Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University)
Venue: Innis Café, Innis College at the University of Toronto, 2 Sussex Street at St. George
7:00 – 8:00
Break | Taiwanese snackboxes available for panel attendees
Venue: Innis Café, Innis College at the University of Toronto, 2 Sussex Street at St. George
Register Online at: http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?EventId=10768
8:00 – 10:35
Kuei-Mei, A Woman (1986)
Film Introduction:
Professor Jing Jing Chang (Film Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University)
Director Chang Yi was a founding member of the Taiwanese New Cinema and contributed a chapter to the seminal anthology film In Our Time (1982). His career climaxed with this family melodrama – much more classically style than many TNC works. The story involves the many travails and years in the life of a woman (played by Hui San Yang) who and makes a disadvantageous marriage to Taipei widower with three children. Kuei-Mei won the most award in Taiwan but, after a final film (and sixth as director) that same year, Chang Yi and Hui San Yang turned to Liuli (traditional Chinese glass making).
Venue: Innis Town Hall, Innis College at the University of Toronto, 2 Sussex Street at St. George
Register Online at: http://webapp.mcis.utoronto.ca/EventDetails.aspx?EventId=10769
This event is co-sponsored by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office - Toronto, Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival, Cinema Studies Institute, CINSSU, and Pan-Asian Student Society (PASS).
