Where Is My "Hometown"

While Identity is hard to recognize in the culture mist of "post-modern”society,Taiwan identity is much more confused due to the changes of recent history.Therefore,Taiwanese would feel rootless or even feel dead and unconsciously.As one of the most renowned auteurs in Taiwan,Hsiao-hsien Hou devotes himself to delineate the map of seeking Taiwan identity in his own way.The introduction part emphasizes the dilemma and awareness of Taiwan Identity,which Hsiao-hsien Hou pays attention to explore,also explains the structure of this paper and the meaning of this research,which is trying to draw the outline of discovery road that Hsiao-hsien Hou seeks in movies.The first chapter analyses the identity situation of auteur,Hsiao-hsien Hou,providing a basis for discussing the identity awareness reflected in his movies.The second chapter focuses on the description about the Taiwan’s countryside life and the teenagers’ growth experience in Hsiao-hsien Hou’s movies and the transformation of personal identity in Taiwan’s society during 1960s and 1970s,through his“growth quartet”,including All the Youthful Days,A Summer of Grandpa’s,The Time to live and time to die and Dust in the Wind.The third chapter analyses the question of identity,which is shown in movies due to the Taiwan’s special history,by“Taiwan trilogy”including The Puppet Master,A City of Sadness,and Goodmen,Goodwomen.These three movies involve the most significant events recently in Taiwan.And based on that,Hsiao-hsien Hou not only describe the events’ influence on normal life for public,but also deal with sensitive political questions such as "historical memories",“national identity”and "nation attribution".What’ s more,in the chapter four,we discuss the movies under the multinational capitalism era,which reflect the reconsideration of identity from Hsiao-hsien Hou,including Millennium Mambo,Coffee jikou and Flight of the Red Balloon,to explain the conflicts of cultural identity between reality and movies,the hover between nationalization and globalization as well.In chapter five,through analyzing Flowers of Shanghai and The Assassin,the focus is to discuss the return of Chinese cultural tradition and re-inspect the identity issue of Taiwan.Surely,in the process of seeking Taiwan identity,Hsiao-hsien Hou realized the profound Chinese tradition wishing to establish a series of narrative methods for Chinese movies.