Taiwanese movie director on climate change – ‘As long as we keep going, we’ll be alright’

Read the original blog in traditional Chinese.

Movie director Wang Shaudi likes to say that “making a TV series is almost like a social movement” and “directing is like self-improvement and a never-ending civics class”. From Portrait of a Good Family and Mother Hen’s Ducklings in the 1990s to Small Doctor in a Big Hospital, Banquet and Boys Can Fly in the new millennium and recently Qseries, Wang Shaudi’s work has accompanied a new generation of film lovers with a critical mindset. 

Wang has been a long standing advocate of social movements around urban renewal and against nuclear energy.  In 2014, when Wang’s partner of 28 years passed away, Wang suddenly became aware of the inequalities same-sex couples faced and thus extended her advocacy to marriage equality. A strong yet gentle elder, she supports the people in a practical way and uses drama to instill courage and confidence.

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. © Greenpeace” alt=”Director Wang Shaudi at her Rice Film International production house

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A film that portrays and dissects environmental issues on the ground

As early as 2003, when she filmed Banquet, Wang Shaudi already felt the urgency of changes in the climate and the environment. “Small Doctor in Big Hospital” was well-received, and at that time people took to giving their feedback online—which set us thinking: “What should be the focus of the next social movement?” recalls Wang Shaudi. So, Banquet discussed Taiwan’s next step: how to balance environmental conservation and economic development. 

This is a big issue that any given country has to face in the course of its development. Through stories that mix beautiful scenic shots of Taiwan’s mountains and forests with young people’s romantic struggles, Wang Shaudi experimented to find answers that resonate. During her extensive preparations for film shoots, she undertook fieldwork and talked to scholars and experts in environmental protection, only to discover that many situations are simply unknown or too confronting for the public. 

“It’s as if a sand dam as big as a house had been blown apart by a typhoon and dropped on the beach… I had just intended to make a TV series to stimulate people’s thinking. But through creating this series, I came to realize that our land is under incredible stress already. We are jeopardizing our future. We can either go on “comfortably,” or get serious.”

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Calling on all to protect the earth and take extreme weather seriously

“Environmental issues tend to make people feel insignificant, powerless, and even depressed.” With a smile, Wang Shaudi recalls how there was a time when she would take offense at people sitting in their parked car with the engine running and air-con blowing. With a great sense of justice, she would knock on the window to politely persuade them. Once, in Lijiang, China, she asked a military officer to turn off his engine. “He just stared at me, so I quickly smiled and said, “To protect the earth.” He’d probably never heard this, but he actually turned off the engine.”

Turning off one engine, while there are thousands of engines idling, pumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, directly adding to more extreme weather in the future and causing asthma today. “Environmental problems will inevitably make you feel powerless at some point. What impact can you, little you, have in the end? Well, as long as we keep going, we’ll be alright.”

Fast forward from Banquet in 2003 to today, and extreme weather events around the world are no longer flukes that can be brushed aside: climate change is happening here and now, for all to see—and respond to. “This is no longer about personal perceptions or feelings. We have all seen the fires in Australia and Brazil. Humans are completely helpless. Even if a transport plane drops a huge load of water on a bush fire, it instantly evaporates like a drop of water. 

Not to mention the ordeal for the animals trapped amid those fires. The recent floods in China are also signs of extreme weather and climate change. Everyone is being shaken awake.”

“Can I really make a difference?” Our environment sets us thinking

Wang Shaudi lived by the sea for a while. After typhoons, the ocean currents would pile tons of trash and driftwood all along the coastline, like a huge and ugly painting, a suffocating sight to anyone that came face to face with it. But she couldn’t look away or unsee it. “Suddenly, in this land of trash and driftwood, the indigenous musician Parangalan showed up to shoot a video of him playing Pacific Wind on his piano right there and then. I suddenly felt ‘This is our home!’ This scene has been etched into my heart.”

Although at times she also asks herself “Can I really make a difference?”, Wang Shaudi never quits her tiny efforts in daily life. For example, during their film shoots, when everyone is working long hours, budget is limited, and manpower lacking, they still sort their waste and use as little plastic as feasible amid the hectic shoots. They even teasingly tell one another “Do you really need that straw? Didn’t you keep your plastic cup?” 

Wang Shaudi asked a friend to send her a “walking bicycle” from the United States. His bicycle, propelled by walking on a conveyor belt between the wheels, is fashionable and eco-friendly and attracts curious looks and questions from passers-by.

“Humans really need to develop self-discipline and stop being a hazard to nature and themselves,” Wang Shaudi said. As long as everyone works to adjust their lifestyles, with a little more effort and sometimes a little less comfort, we’ll end up alright. In 2020, a turbulent year for the world, the veteran optimist tells us that we will always stumble upon this “piano sound on a beach full of rubbish” to renew our faith in a better future.

Christine Lee is a freelance writer for Greenpeace East Asia.