Chen Yu-hsun

Chen Yu-hsun (born June 21, 1962) is a Taiwanese commercial director and filmmaker born in Taipei, Taiwan. He is the first director to win the three major film awards in Taiwan, including the Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards, the Taipei Film Awards, and the Taiwan Film Critics Society Awards, for the same film, My Missing Valentine. He is widely known for his "offbeat, distinctly Taiwanese sense of humor that permeates his works".

Biography After spending his fourth year at the so-called "Junior Fourth Class" (a cram school for students retaking high school after their junior year), Chen Yu-Hsun successfully entered the Cheng Kung High School after a grade retention. After failing the university entrance exam, he had no choice but to enlist in the military. Retaking the university entrance exam for the second time at the age of 22, he finally passed and enrolled in the Department of Educational Media and Library Sciences, now renamed as the Department of Information and Library Science, at the Tamkang University. Chen graduated from the Tamkang University in 1989.

Chen always has a passion for painting and heavy metal music. It was not until his senior year that he got hold of the opportunity to work as a studio assistant in the Department of Mass Communication at the university, which led him to an internship with director Wang Shaudi. Chen Yu-Hsun found his true passion at the internship. That is, telling stories through visual images. Chen started his first job as a script supervisor for director Tsai Ming-Liang's comedy drama, Happy Motor Shop (1989).

Due to his dissatisfaction with the filmmaking environment and his box office failures in Taiwan, Chen had once left the film industry for 13 years. During that time, he worked on many humorous commercial advertisement projects that became well known among television audiences.

His film The Village of No Return was released in 2017. Chinese netizens campaigned to boycott the film, stating that Chen was sympathetic towards the Sunflower Movement.

Television series

1989: Happy Motor Shop (快樂車行) 1989: Jia Jia Fu (佳家福) 1991: A Space for the Little People—Are We Angels? (小市民的天空—我們算不算是天使) 1992: Hen and Duckling (母雞帶小鴨) 1994: Ngasal Maku—My Home (納桑嘛谷－我的家) In 2013, Chen Yu-Hsun criticized President Ma Ying-jeou on Facebook regarding the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement. He questioned why the president did not inform the people and the legislature when signing the agreement, but instead choose to announce to world other irrelevant personal details. During the 2014 Sunflower Movement, Chen Yu-Hsun personally visited the Legislative Yuan to show support for the protesting students, teasing that, "I heard that suncakes were delivered here, so I come to have some." He also posted on Facebook, "Our grandfathers' revolution allows our fathers to have the right to vote, but if the fathers vote recklessly, the sons have to start a revolution." He also stated in his Facebook post that, "I don't know about the other people, but what I want is to defend democracy. Politicians must respect their people. No matter how important the Service Trade Agreement could be, it will never be as important as our democracy." On April 10, 2014, when the Sunflower Movement withdrew from the Legislative Yuan, Chen Yu-Hsun again posted a photo on Facebook with the caption, "The world may not become better, but you will." He thanked the students, saying, "When you can see things clearly, you can appreciate them better. When you can appreciate the world better, you can then gain at lot from it. Colorful, vibrant, warm, humorous, and infinitely creative. Thanks to this student-led civic movement, which has sparked new thinking in Taiwan. We will become better." On January 5, 2017, Chen Yu-Hsun released a statement emphasizing that he had never supported Taiwan independence movement. He stated, "I have never had the belief in Taiwan's independence, nor do I support it or consider myself a pro-independence person." He emphasized that standing against the Service Trade Agreement does not equal being pro-independence. He also expressed the hope for open-mindedness, setting aside biases, and enhancing mutual trust between both sides of the Taiwan Strait. He also expressed the desire for smoother exchanges in the film and television industries between Taiwan and China.