Prague, April 10 (CTK) – Taiwanese film director Hou Hsiao-hsien, 69, who was awarded at the prestigious festivals in Cannes and Venice will visit Prague in May to attend an international conference on Taiwanese film, National Film Archive spokeswoman Jana Ulipova told CTK today.
The conference is held on the occasion of the 20 the anniversary of the International Sinological Centre of Charlws University (UK) in Prague.
Hou Hsiao-hsien will be accompanied by scriptwriter, writer and playwright Chu Tien-wen, 60, from Taiwan.
The director’s most significant films will be screened in the film archive’s Ponrepo cinema within the conference’s accompanying programme.
In them, he asks questions about the Taiwanese people’s identity and the fate of Chinese culture at present. The topics of national, cultural and political identity appear in his whole work.
His film A City of Sadness (1989), inspired by Taiwan’s recent history, won the Golden Lion main award at the 1989 Venice Film Festival. His historical film Assassin won the best director’s award in Cannes in 2015.
Hou Hsiao-hsien will personally introduce his film Flowers of Shanghai (1998) in Prague on May 2. He will also join discussions with the audience after the screenings on May 3-5.
International Sinological Centre at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University (FF UK) was established in 1997 with the aim to study the Chinese culture and society in a broad sense of the word. It organises projects in the areas of linguistics, literary science, history, art history, philosophy, religious studies, political science and other fields.
Besides, an exhibition Twenty Years of the Chiang Ching-kuo International Sinological Centre will be held on the occasion of its anniversary from April 27 until the end of May.
The conference will take place in the UK’s historical building on May 2-3. It is freely open to the public.
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