"A generation of grandmasters" and "pioneers" - posthumously remembering the famous Taiwanese director Mr. Li Xing

Taipei, 21 Aug (Xinhua) -- He is the "grandmaster of a generation" of Taiwanese films, the "driving force" of cross-strait film exchanges, and the "lifelong volunteer" of Chinese films...

On the evening of August 19, Mr. Li Xing, a famous director and chairman of the Cross-Strait Film Exchange Committee, died of heart and lung failure in Taipei at the age of 91.

From Shanghai in 1930 to Taipei in 2021, Mr. Li Xing has read through the ever-changing years of mountains and rivers, walked through an extraordinary path of life, and used movies to carve time, narrate feelings, and connect the two sides of the strait.

The mainland film industry and the audience's understanding of Taiwanese films probably originated from a "Boat in the Ocean", and ordinary people knew the actor Qin Han from this, but there were probably not many people who knew the director of the film, Li Xing. When Enshi Xian passed away, Qin Han mourned bitterly: "I hope that somewhere in heaven, you are still excited and earnestly working hard to make movies." ”

A Boat in the Ocean is a 1978 film by Lee Khung, who was already a leading figure in Taiwanese cinema. Regarding the origin of his film road, Li Xing once recalled that it began when he was a student. According to some sources, when Li Xing was studying at a university in Suzhou, he majored in the drama group of the Department of Art Education, and decided to dedicate himself to drama films because he watched Fei Mu's "Spring in a Small Town".

In 1948, Li Xing moved to Taiwan with his family and entered Taiwan Normal College (now Taiwan Normal University), where he often participated in the school drama club and served as a director. Before entering the film industry, he worked as a teacher and a journalist. In 1958, Li Xing participated in the directing of the film "Brother Wang Liu Ge Tour to Taiwan", completing his directorial debut.

Li Xing is a pioneer of Taiwanese cinema, and in the 1960s, he pioneered the path of creating healthy realistic films in Taiwan. In his nearly 30-year creative career, he has shot 52 films, winning the Golden Horse Award for Best Director three times for "Duck Farmer's Family", "Autumn Decision" and "A Boat in the Ocean", and 7 works have won the Golden Horse Award for Best Feature Film, and won the Golden Horse Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Among Li Xing's classic works, there are "The Story of a Small Town" sung by Taiwanese singer Teresa Teng Lijun singing the theme song, "The Original Villager" adapted from the novel of the same name by Taiwanese writer Zhong Lihe, and many films adapted from Qiong Yao's novel, such as "Dumb Girl's Deep Love"...

Taiwanese film scholar Jiao Xiongping once commented: "Director Lee's films are like his people, upholding tradition and upholding ethics, he loves the family and advocates emotions" "Family is the core of director Li Xing's spiritual values" "What is equally touching as the ethics of family affection is Director Li's feelings for Taiwan and China." She said that in works such as "Streets and Alleys" and "Original Villagers", traces of Chinese film traditions in the 1930s and 1940s can be seen.

When participating in the International Forum on Commemorating the Centenary of Chinese Cinema in the mainland, Li Xing once said that he grew up following the footsteps of Chinese film art, and countless classics such as "Fisherman's Light Song", "Road Angel", "Cross Street", "A River of Spring Water Flowing Eastward", especially the spirit of humane care and profound ideological connotation of the predecessors, inherited China's five-thousand-year historical and cultural tradition, and influenced his creative concept and film path.

Jiao Xiongping analyzed that director Li Xing brought the narrative and aesthetic traditions of classic Chinese films from the mainland to Taiwan, and his unique film art style also flourished with the "children and soldiers". Li Xing can be described as peach and plum in the Taiwanese film industry, not only has he created many well-known actors, such as "Erqin Erlin" (Qin Han, Qin Xianglin, Lin Qingxia, Lin Fengjiao), but also spared no effort to cultivate film creative talents, including Hou Xiaoxian, Zhang Yi, Chen Kunhou, Zhang Aijia, etc.

Hou Xiaoxian, the assistant director of Li Xing's work "A Thousand Knots in the Heart", once said: Director Li has established a Taiwanese film system, and also inherited the perspective of young directors to see reality.

At the end of the 1980s, the ice between the two sides of the strait was broken. Soon, Li Xing took on a new mission. In 1990, he was invited by the China Filmmakers Association to lead people from Taiwan's film industry to Beijing to participate in seminars. Subsequently, he organized a delegation to the mainland to participate in the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards, which was the first time that the Taiwanese film industry participated in the mainland film festival. In 1993, he continued to serve as the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Golden Horse Awards, which prompted the mainland film industry to officially organize a delegation to taiwan to participate in the Golden Horse Awards.

Li Xing has been committed to promoting cross-strait film exchanges for many years, and he once said: "In my lifetime, I want to contribute my energy to our cross-strait films and always strive to promote the development of Chinese films." The mainland has held Li Xing film exhibitions many times, and he has donated copies of his works to the China Film Archive many times.

After years of sincere exchanges, Li Xing has formed a deep friendship with mainland filmmakers. In that year, after the death of Mr. Xie Jin, a famous director in the mainland, Li Xing rushed to Shanghai to send his deceased friend on his last journey, and tears spilled into the spiritual hall.

In 2009, Taiwan's Cross-Strait Film Exchange Committee was established, and Li Xing, 79, was elected chairman of the committee. In the same year, the agency and the China Film Foundation jointly held the first cross-strait film exhibition.

Not long ago, last year's cross-strait film festival was postponed due to the epidemic and until this year's 12th cross-strait film festival was set. The poster has a cute comic image of director Li Xing, but at this moment, Mr. Hexi has gone. The organizer's preview also wrote his message: "This year's new crown epidemic is still severe, and filmmakers on both sides of the strait cannot exchange physical visits, but through the film screenings in Taipei and Beijing, it is still an important channel to enhance understanding of each other's markets and industrial development trends." ”

"The integration and integration of film cultures on both sides of the strait will make the concept of Chinese films more complete and also show a new vision for the common prosperity and development of the two sides of the strait." Mr. Li Xing once said.

"Mourning Director Li Xing! Thank you director Li for his unremitting efforts and contributions to the exchange and cooperation of Chinese directors in mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong over the past 30 years! Xie Fei, a famous director in the mainland, expressed his condolences on Weibo on the 20th.

Filmmakers on both sides of the strait remember director Li Xing in different ways, and the reporter recalled that when he encouraged young directors on both sides of the strait to "fight for Chinese films together," he said: "I am a veteran of Chinese film directors in Taiwan. "Veterans do not die", Mr. Li Xing's expectation of the film industry on both sides of the strait to join hands to open a "beautiful new generation" has remained in the human world, and all his fiery love will be like an eternal director's chair, passed down, and create more timeless poems of light and shadow.