Tarzan Come to Taiwan: Taiwanese-Language Cinema and the Cold War

In Tarzan and the Treasure (1965), the Taiwanese Tarzan lives in the jungle of Malaya, where Japanese gold from World War II is buried. The descendants of Taiwanese soldiers who served in the Japanese Imperial Army chase it down in this unintentionally amusing film. Chris Berry's talk will set the film in the context of the Taiwanese-language cinema, which produced over 1,000 films between the 1950s and early 1970s and marked the start of regular feature film production on the island, and Cold War cosmopolitanism: in the age of Taiwan's economic miracle, audiences aspired to Southeast Asian tourism and Western consumer goods, but the People's Republic was barely acknowledged.

The film Tarzan and the Treasure will be available one week prior to the lecture via link. Please contact Elena Pollacchi (elena.pollacchi@sprak.gu.se) for film and Zoom links.