In honor of Taiwanese writer Chu Tien-wen (朱天文), the recipient of the 4th Newman Prize for Chinese Literature, the Taiwan Academy in Houston organized a series of literary discussions and film screenings during her stay in the southern U.S. from March 5 through 15.
Chu was presented with the 4th Newman medallion and certificate at the University of Oklahoma on March 6. Some 150 guests of honor from the U.S. academic circle, including the University of California, San Diego and Stanford University, and the overseas Chinese community in Oklahoma City attended the award ceremony in support of Chu.
After the ceremony, Chu attended several literature and film events organized by the Taiwan Academy in Houston, where she discussed the screenplays she adapted for one of Taiwan's most influential directors, Hou Hsiao-hsien (侯孝賢).
Chu also gave a speech titled "Between Literature and Screenplay” at Rice University's Rice Media Center on March 9. The novelist, who was also a major playwright during Taiwan's New Wave Cinema era, summarized the development of Taiwanese films, citing Hou's filmmaking techniques - long takes and montages - to the audience. Chu also described Hou's meeting with Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa (黑澤明).
In the speech, she also introduced several other Western film directors and critics, including Sergei Eisenstein, André Bazin, and Robert Bresson while sharing her own experience of working with Taiwanese New Wave Cinema directors Hou, Edward Yang (楊德昌), and Wu Nien-jen (吳念真).
The Rice Media Center also screened films whose screenplays were adapted by Chu - "Flowers of Shanghai,” "Good Men, Good Women” and "Millennium Mambo” - as part of the "Also Like Life: The Films of Hou Hsiao-hsien” retrospective series.
Taiwanese writer Chu Tien-wen (center) is pictured with Mr. and Mrs. Newman at the 4th Newman Prize for Chinese Literature awards ceremony held at the University of Oklahoma on March 6, 2015.
Chu (right) discusses literature and cinema at the Rice Media Center on March 9, 2015. Tsai Chien-hsin (left), Asian studies associate professor at University of Texas in Austin, served as the translator at the event. He also hosted the pre-screening talks for two of Hou's films – "Dust in the Wind" and "The Puppetmaster."