Time: 19:00, Friday, November 16, 2007

Venue: Auditorium Hall, 1F, Center for Academic Activities,

            Academia Sinica

Movies: On a Tight Rope/16 mins,

             Children in Heaven/13 mins,

             The Gangster's God/49 mins

Admission: Free

Synopsis:

On a Tight Rope

Petr Lom / 60mins / Betacam / Norway, Canada / 2007

This is a lyrical film about four children living in an orphanage in Xinjiang province, China. The children are Uighurs, members of China’s eight million strong largest Muslim minority. To prevent Uighur separatism, China enforces a policy of cultural and political assimilation in Xinjiang: religion is particularly targeted. (Human Rights Watch reports that 10,000 Uighurs are political prisoners, and hundreds have been executed. China claims they are terrorists.) The film shows the reality of the Uighurs through a small story: a story of four Uighur children dreaming of becoming champion tightrope walkers, an ancient Uighur tradition, which becomes a metaphor for the lives of all Uighurs whose lives are balancing acts in their attempts to preserve their language and Muslim identity against the persecution of the Chinese Communist state.

Children in Heaven

Mayaw Biho / 13mins / Betacam / Taiwan / 1997

The tribe living under the San-ying Bridge is charged with violation of the Water Act every year and will witness the powerful execution of the government's law enforcement that vacates even the shattered construction material after the demolition. On the other hand, the sand processing plant on the right side of the tribe grows bigger and bigger each day, and the garbage dumpsite on the left bank grows higher and higher each day. The government spends tens of millions of dollars to dispose of the hazardous waste material underneath the bridge. For those who live under the bridge, Ching Yu wants them back to the mountain!

The Gangster's God

Chao-ti Ho / 49mins / Betacam / Taiwan / 2006

Every Lantern Festival in eastern Taiwan, a group of men stripped bare above the waist and wearing nothing but red shorts stand on a sacred palanquin, allowing people to pound their bodies with bottlerockets and singe their skin. They are believed to be human incarnations of the god Handan. The “Scorching of Handan” has in recent years become a major event in eastern Taiwan—Taidong. Those who take part in the ritual have always been shrouded in mystery, and rumored to be members of the gangster underworld.

The film delves deeply into the local underworld community of Taidong. The reason these three underworld members play the role of “living Handans” is to serve the true god in heaven. Some hope to extricate themselves from the life of the Taiwanese underworld; others are learning how to enter into it. Some have worked as hit men. Some still work as strongmen collecting debts. They have all served time in prison, and have committed various crimes. Through this ritual, we can witness the rules and relationships within this small underworld community, as well as the different values that different generations hold toward popular religious beliefs.