Li Hsing

Li Hsing or Lee Hsing (李行) was a Taiwanese film director. He was born Lee Tz-da (李子達) in 1930 in Shanghai and died in 2021. He made one of the early popular Taiwanese films in the late 1959, Wang and Liu Tour Taiwan (王哥柳哥遊台灣), though he did not speak Taiwanese. He was also the key director in the promotion of Healthy Realist film (健康寫實片) and Literary Romantic film (愛情文藝片). He was awarded the best director at Golden Horse Awards three times and had seven films awarded the best feature film: Beautiful Duckling (養鴨人家; 1965), The Road (路; 1967), Execution in Autumn (秋決; 1972), Land of the Undaunted, (吾土吾民; 1975), He Never Gives Up (汪洋中的一條船; 1978), The Story of a Small Town (小城故事; 1979), and Good Morning, Taipei (早安台北; 1979). After he made his last film The Heroic Pioneers (唐山過台灣; 1986), he vowed to be the lifetime volunteer for the promotion of development of Taiwan cinema. In 2009 he established the Cross-Strait Films Exchange Committee, which has been the main, if not only, organization promoting the interaction and cooperation of Taiwanese and Chinese filmmakers. Lee Hsing is often referred to as the "godfather of Taiwan cinema" for his great contribution to Taiwan cinema.

Career Li Hsing graduated from Taiwan Provincial Normal College (台灣省立師範學院; now National Taiwan Normal University) in 1952. He acted in many films and often also served as the assistant director between 1955 and 1958, such as The Assault (血戰; 1958).

In 1958 Li Hsing directed his first film, a Taiwanese-language comic film Brother Wang and Brother Liu Tour Taiwan though he did not speak the language. The film features a similar pair of characters like Laurel and Hardy and was released as two installments. They were so popular that it spun many more with the same pair of actors with similar titles, directed by Li Hsing and others.

In 1963 Li Hsing began to make his first mandarine film Our Neighbor (街頭巷尾). He was hired by CMPC and co-directed the first color feature film Oyster Girl (蚵女), which together with Beautiful Duckling become the representative films of the "Healthy Realism" (健康寫實主義) promoted by CMPC. Li Hsing then began to adopt short stories by Qiong Yao (瓊瑤) and made Wan Chun (婉君表妹; 1965) and The Silent Wife (啞女情深; 1965). He lost his only son Lee Xian-yi (李顯一), who died in a car accident in 1996. In response to Lee Hsing's effort to promote the interaction and cooperation between filmmakers of Taiwan and Mainland China, the Motion Picture Foundation established Cross-Strait Films Exchange Committee (兩岸電影交流委員會), of which Li Hsing was the first chairperson. The committee has since then organized the annual Cross-Strait Film Festival (兩岸電影展), which is simultaneously held in Taiwan and Mainland China. Li Hsing died on August 19, 2021 at age 91.

Filmography

Awards and honors

Golden Horse Awards Source: 1965: Best Director for Beautiful Duckling 1972: Best Director for Execution in Autumn 1978: Best Director for He Never Gives Up 1979: Nominated for Best Director for The Story of a Small Town 1986: Nominated for Best Director for The Heroic Pioneers 1995: Special Award for Lifetime Achievement