Taiwanese Film Star Mourns Lost Legacy as Classic Movies Were Sold to Southeast Asia

For Chen Chiu-yen, seeing her younger self return to the big screen feels both strange and embarrassing. “Very childish, very tacky,” she joked while reflecting on the restoration of Taiwan’s old Taiwanese-language films.

Chen grew up acting at the Beitou studios, once known as Taiwan’s Hollywood. She appeared in more than 200 productions and became one of the leading stars of Taiwanese-language cinema at 19. She later left the screen for almost 40 years.

The restored films represent more than a personal archive for Chen. They form part of Taiwan’s film history, a history she witnessed as Taiwanese-language cinema rose and declined. She said Taiwan once lacked a strong culture of film preservation, while the 1959 Typhoon Winnie floods damaged large numbers of films. Some were later sold to Southeast Asia and have never been recovered.

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Very childish, very tacky.

Restoration work has now brought long-lost productions back to audiences, giving Chen a way to preserve a part of her youth. Looking back, she acknowledges regrets but no longer dwells on how her life might have differed. “As long as I do my best, and when I add it all up, it was something I liked, then I’ll accept my fate,” she said.

The National Film and Audiovisual Culture Center is marking 70 years of Taiwanese-language cinema with a year-long programme. Its September 5 to 27 closing programme, titled “Longing at Midnight: Flowing, World, Taiwanese-Language Cinema,” will include Chen’s film "Meeting You Once."

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As long as I do my best, and when I add it all up, it was something I liked, then I’ll accept my fate.