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EDITORIAL: Ang Lee
and the pursuit of dreams
Taiwanese film director Ang Lee’s (李安) award of best director at the Oscars on
Sunday night for Life of Pi was a source of tremendous pride for Taiwan,
especially after he thanked Taiwanese for their help in making the movie.
The Oscar is a new benchmark in Lee’s illustrious career and one that he made
little secret he coveted. However, the evidence of his greatness as a filmmaker
manifested itself well before the 58-year-old native of Pingtung County stepped
onto the podium to receive his Oscar.
Over the years, Lee has transcended his identity as an Asian and tackled with
great precision a surprisingly versatile list of genres, from Victorian Britain
in Sense and Sensibility — a feat of civilizational displacement perhaps only
equaled by Japanese novelist Kazuo Ishiguro in his book The Remains of the Day —
to the American West and male homosexuality in Brokeback Mountain.
From less ambitious and more local efforts like his Father Knows Best trilogy
(家庭三部曲) to the martial arts extravaganza Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (臥虎藏龍),
Lee has constantly pushed the envelope of storytelling and proven himself as one
of the greatest filmmakers of our time.
However, there was nothing preordained in Lee’s rise to the top. In fact, his
success occurred against all odds, with constant reminders from family and the
society he grew up in that filmmaking — especially filmmaking by an Asian in the
West — was not a realistic or respectable job. Among those who opposed his
artistic ambitions was his father, who for years refused to speak to the young
Lee as he struggled to make it in Hollywood. Relatives offered him money so he
would open a Chinese restaurant, and in his struggling years, Lee even began
studying informatics, thinking he might find a job working with computers.
That we are able to enjoy Lee’s artistic vision today is largely thanks to his
wife, Jane Lin (林惠嘉), who never stopped believing in her husband’s dreams and,
when the fledgling filmmaker was on the brink of giving up, gave him that extra
push (it was she who returned the money given Lee to open the restaurant).
There is a lesson in this. While Taiwanese on Monday were eager to celebrate the
“pride of Taiwan” for his achievement, the great majority of them, along with
their government, looked the other way when Lee was struggling as an assistant
on movie sets, on the brink of giving up and taking up a “real job.”
Far too often, Taiwanese denigrate the arts and sports, discouraging their
children from pursuing their dreams and forcing them to choose career paths that
are unsuited to them. As with basketball player Jeremy Lin (林書豪), Taiwan is
happy to claim successes, but rarely provides the support necessary to achieve
such goals.
Lee, like many others who have shone on the international scene, succeeded not
because of Taiwan, but despite it.
As Taiwan struggles to break through the wall of silence that surrounds its
existence, it is high time that dreamers be cultivated and encouraged to press
ahead, even if, in the short term, such endeavors do not translate into dollar
figures. A nation is not built on lawyers, doctors and businesspeople alone. It
needs thinkers, writers, philosophers, filmmakers, painters, architects and
professional athletes.
Only through proper support, both financial and moral, will tomorrow’s “prides
of Taiwan” emerge to help put the nation on the map. They are out there today,
and they need all the encouragement they can get.
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