Millions of people in Taiwan watched the Oscar ceremonies live on television yesterday morning to see if Ang Lee (李安) would become the first Asian director to win an award outside the Best Foreign Film category.
Whether the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would award the best picture and best director prize to Lee for Brokeback Mountain was a topic of discussion nationwide prior to the telecast.
"My colleagues don't usually follow the news, but their eyes were glued to the screen of the television in the restaurant and everybody who was watching the broadcast cried out when they heard the news," said Lynn Lin, 32, an executive at a Taipei engineering consultancy.
PHOTO: CNA
"Because Taiwan isn't that well known internationally, this kind of recognition is very important to people," Lin said.
Lee's work is also receiving praise from social groups. Gay-rights activists in Taiwan said that Brokeback's three Oscars are an inspiration for the gay-rights movements in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Singapore, where homosexuality is still largely a taboo subject.
"It has given us more hope and confidence," activist Chi Chia-wei (
While many legislators applauded Lee's success in his recent film, however, independent Legislator Li Ao (李敖) said that he does not watch "gay movies," and that even if gay marriage were legalized, it would be too much to see gay couples adopt children.
"I do not understand gay movies and I dislike the idea of homosexuality. Well, gay people can get married, but why do they want to adopt children? What is the child going to say to his or her classmates? I have two fathers?" Li said. "This just doesn't make any sense. I think gay people are really too much. Brokeback Mountain is simply a nuisance to me."
Lee first touched upon the subject of homosexuality in The Wedding Banquet, the story about a Taiwanese man living in the US, his gay American lover and the wedding he agrees to for his traditional family. Lee has on many occasions called for acceptance of gay men and lesbians, but the married father of two says he is not gay.
"One does not need to be a killer to shoot a film on crime, and one does not need to be a homosexual to shoot a film on homosexuals," he said in an interview on cable station TVBS in January.
Independent Legislator May Chin (高金素梅), who acted in Lee's The Wedding Banquet in 1993, said yesterday that "Ang Lee has definitely improved his filmmaking technique over the years. He certainly deserves such an award."
"As a former actress, I believe he really deserves the award and lives up to his reputation," she said.
The critically acclaimed director -- five of whose films have now been nominated for Oscars -- is likely to be busy picking up more honors in Taiwan.
The Government Information Office said it would present a cash reward to him. His alma mater, the National Arts School, plans to give him an honorary doctorate.
"This is not only an honor for Taiwan but also for Asia because Ang Lee is the first Asian director to win Oscar's best director award," Taiwan Directors' Guild vice chairman Lee You-ning (李祐寧) said.
"We finally have a director who is recognized by the entire world," said Johnson Chung, who works in a film distribution company.
When asked if he enjoyed the intimacy depicted in Brokeback, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Justin Chou (周守訓) said, "I do admire their close relationship. But I guess I could never do that in my life."
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