Transnational Representations focuses on a neglected period in Taiwan film scholarship: the golden age of the 1960s and 1970s, which saw innovations in plot, theme and genre as directors highlighted the complexities of Taiwan's position in the world. Combining a concise overview of Taiwan film history with analysis of representative Taiwan films, the book reveals the internal and external struggles Taiwan experienced in its search for global identity. This cross-disciplinary study adopts a transnational approach which presents Taiwan's film industry as one that is intertwined with that of mainland China, challenging previous accounts that present the two industries as parallel yet separate. The book also offers productive comparisons between Taiwan films and contemporary films elsewhere representing the politics of migration, and between the antecedents of new cinema movements and Taiwan New Cinema of the 1980s.

Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Framing Taiwan cinema : perspectives on history in Hou Hsiao-hsien's Three times -- Two stage brothers : tracing a common heritage in Xie Jin and Li Xing's early 1960s films -- Projecting a state that does not exist : the politics of migration in Bai Jingrui's 1970 film Home sweet home -- Gender negotiation in Song Cunshou's Story of mother and Taiwan cinema of the early 1970s -- Conclusion : transnationalism and the structure of feeling of Taiwan cinema in the late 1970s.