A Chinese war plane goes missing near Taiwan. China sends swarms of military boats and planes for a blockade as Taiwan goes on a war footing. Panic ensues on the streets of Taipei.
That is the premise of Zero Day (零日攻擊), a new Taiwanese TV drama envisioning a Chinese invasion. It is a topic that has for years been considered too sensitive for many Taiwanese filmmakers and television show creators, who fear losing access to the lucrative Chinese entertainment market.
However, as China continues to step up military threats, including conducting daily military activities close to Taiwan, the upcoming drama confronts the fear by setting the 10-episode series around a Chinese invasion of the nation.
Photo: CNA
“We thought there is freedom in Taiwan, but in film and TV production we are restricted by China on many levels,” Zero Day showrunner Cheng Hsin-mei (鄭心媚) said.
China has a much larger market for film and television. Taiwanese entertainers are popular there, partly due to language and cultural similarities.
However, creators in free and democratic Taiwan are indirectly confined by Beijing’s powerful state censorship, Cheng said.
Beijing has regularly called out Taiwanese artists seen as going against China’s political ideology and has threatened to blacklist those unwilling to cooperate.
For the Zero Day crew, confronting such a sensitive topic means facing difficulties, from funding and casting to finding places to film.
Cheng said more than half of the Zero Day crew asked to remain anonymous, and some people, including a director, pulled out of the production at the last minute due to worries it might jeopardize their future work in China or concerns about the safety of their families working there.
“Our freedom is hard-earned,” Cheng said, adding that people should not give in easily due to fears over China.
“The [Chinese] People’s Liberation Army has launched substantial incursions against us and they are getting closer and closer,” she said. “We should look at this directly rather than pretending that it is not happening.”
The show, which is set to be broadcast online and on yet-to-be announced television channels next year, is already creating buzz in Taiwan after the extended trailer went online in July.
The drama focuses on several scenarios Taiwan might face in the days leading up to a Chinese attack, including a global financial collapse, the activation of Chinese sleeper agents and panicked residents trying to flee the nation.
“Without freedom, Taiwan is not Taiwan,” a fictional Taiwanese president says in a televised speech in the show’s trailer, urging unity after declaring war on China.
The live broadcast then gets abruptly cut off, replaced by a feed of a Chinese state television anchor calling for Taiwanese to surrender and to report “hidden pro-independence activists” to Chinese soldiers after their landing in Taiwan.
Milton Lin, a 75-year-old Taipei resident, said he was grateful the TV series was putting a spotlight on the threats by China.
“It helps Taiwanese to understand that we are facing a strong enemy trying to annex us and how we should be on guard with unity to face such an invasion,” he said.
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