ABSTRACT
The question of how to write about Taiwan cinema is complex. In that opening statement alone, I have already had to choose whether to use the term ‘Taiwanese cinema’ or ‘Taiwan cinema’ to refer to cinema on the island. ‘Taiwanese’ is more grammatically correct, as ‘Taiwan’ is not normally an adjective. However, ‘Taiwanese’ can be understood as referring only to benshengren, or those ‘Taiwanese’ inhabitants whose origins predate the late 1940s and can be traced back to what is now China. They are distinguished from both the waishengren, or mainlanders, who came after the late 1940s when they retreated to the island and the Communists took control on the mainland, and the yuanzhumin or aboriginal inhabitants, who were there before anyone arrived from what is today China. ‘Taiwan’, on the other hand, simply refers to the physical island.1
