Film researcher Su Chih Heng guides readers through the rise and fall of Taiwan’s golden age of cinema, a brief flourishing of local-language blockbusters that swept the island nation during the 1960’s.

While Taiwanese directors like Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Ang Li are well-known to film buffs worldwide, few outside Taiwan will have heard of the golden age of Taiwanese cinema that predates these perennial award-winners, nor of the dramatic boom-and-bust that ended Taiwan’s first flash of cinematic glory.

Starting in the mid-1950’s with the first screen adaptations of Hokkien-language folk operas, Taiwan’s film industry quickly ramped up production, gracing local theaters with three new releases per week. In the 1970’s, however, this thriving industry collapsed, and Taiwanese cinema showed no signs of recovery until the rise of the New Wave in the 1980’s.