Taiwanese director Liao Hsiang- hsiung (廖祥雄), who pioneered several policies to improve the film industry in Taiwan when he worked for the government, passed away on Saturday at the age of 89, the Taipei-based Chinese Society of Cinematographers said yesterday.
Born on Dec. 3, 1933, Liao worked as a filmmaker before entering the Executive Yuan’s now-defunct Government Information Office in the 1980s.
Liao initially served as a deputy chief at the Cabinet-level agency’s audiovisual department before heading the film regulator, where he pioneered several policies that benefited Taiwan’s film industry.
As a filmmaker, Liao pushed for broader inspection and rating procedures for films, and cemented regulations overseeing government funding for filmmakers.
He also tried to make the Golden Horse Awards, the world’s oldest annual celebration of film in the Chinese-speaking world, more internationally inclusive.
Having studied broadcasting in Japan and filmmaking in San Francisco in the early 1960s, Liao later headed the media section of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in Japan.
Liao made a number of films, such as the 1971 movie Love Can Forgive and Forget (真假千金), which was the runner-up for Best Feature Film at the 10th Golden Horse Awards in 1972 following martial arts legend Bruce Lee’s (李小龍) kung-fu classic Fist of Fury (精武門).
Japan-based veteran actress Judy Ongg (翁倩玉) the same year won her only Golden Horse Best Actress award for her role in Love Can Forgive and Forget.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
RSS