The Returnee as an Outsider: Reunion and Division in Wang Quan’an’s Apart Together (團圓, tuan yuan)

Phyllis Huang

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

Mainland Chinese director Wang Quan’an’s Apart Together, which won the Silver Bear Award for Best Screenplay in 2010, tackles the issue of cross-Strait relations by telling the story of Kuomintang veteran Liu Yansheng’s return to mainland China after nearly 40 years of separation from his wife and son. Shanghainese is the main language of the film, a dialect that is used to suggest a local attitude towards the national issue.
While earlier Chinese films on similar themes often emphasise the cultural and
emotional ties between Taiwan and China, in Wang’s film Liu is characterised as
an unwelcome Taiwanese guest, an intruder in his wife’s Chinese family. This essay argues that Wang’s Apart Together contests the People’s Republic of China’s official discourse of cross-Strait reunification by demonstrating the cultural and identity divisions between the Taiwanese character and his Chinese family. Wang provides an alternative perspective on the ‘Taiwan issue’, showing that ordinary people’s experience of cross-Strait reunion might be painful and problematic.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)143-162
Number of pages20
JournalInternational Journal of Taiwan Studies
Volume4
Publication statusPublished - 2021

Keywords

  • cross-Strait relations
  • mainlander
  • Wang Quan’an
  • Apart Together

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