Hsin Chi

Biography

Chi Hsin has directed more than 50 Taiwanese Hokkien-language films including romance, realistic, wuxia, comedy, crime, thriller, Taiwanese opera and even softcore pornography – but only eight of them survived. In the late 60s when the production of Hokkien-language films started to decline, Xin tried to make Mandarin-speaking films. He even went to Hong Kong and there he made some wuxia films for the Shaw Brothers in King Hu’s style but the collaboration terminated prematurely. In 1971, he moved to the television industry by writing and directing for companies owned by the state. Until his retirement in 1990, he made numerous dramas and education programmes. After the 1990s, he worked on the preservation of Hokkien-language films by assisting the Chinese Taipei Film Archive (now renamed to the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute) and creating an association for actors once working in the Hokkien-language films. His numerous interviews are the significant historical resources, helping us understand the development of Hokkien-language cinema in Taiwan.