Private Project

Master or Guest

This is the story of the Hakka people in Taiwan, who have fought for three hundred years to achieve ethnic equality.
It unavoidably delves deeply into the historical facts surrounding Han-Yuan (Han and indigenous peoples), Min-Yue (Minnan and Guangdong), the island's Japanese era, local versus mainland Chinese, and the broader classification of Taiwan and China.
The everyday life and values that Taiwan currently takes for granted actually stem from a series of migrations and social collisions, which continue to this day. This film persistently explores the question of "Who are the guests? Who are the hosts?" on this island, reflecting on the past and serving as a warning for the future.

  • Ko-Shang Shen
    Director
  • Project Type:
    Documentary
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 39 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    June 30, 2024
  • Production Budget:
    230,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    Taiwan
  • Country of Filming:
    Taiwan
  • Language:
    Chinese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ko-Shang Shen

SHEN Ko-shang, a highly regarded director from Taiwan, is renowned for his prolific creative energy. His early work "Layover" gained prominence at domestic and international film festivals, marking the beginning of a filmmaking career that has spanned over a decade. Shen's oeuvre encompasses feature films, documentaries, experimental films, and commercial advertisements. His documentary "A Rolling Stone," produced in collaboration with the National Culture and Arts Foundation and Public Television Service, received three prestigious awards at the 15th Taipei Film Awards: Best Documentary, Best Editing, and the Million Dollar Grand Prize.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

It took five years to make this documentary, which reexamines the relationships of different ethnic groups in Taiwan and explores the survival stories of the Hakka people for the past 300 years, including Han-Yuan (Han and indigenous peoples), Min-Yue (Fujian and Guangdong), the island’s Japanese Colonial era), local versus mainland Chinese and the broader classification of Taiwan and China. Through different forms of art, like story-telling, interviews, animated videos and dances, we’re trying to tell people who the Taiwan people really are. The crew collected the contemporary viewpoints of our ethnic groups from the field researches and challenged the historic viewpoints of our mainstream ethnic groups in the past to show their changes in the immigrant society. To define who the guests and hosts are on this island is an issue not only in Taiwan, but also globally, to reflect on our cultural diversity and the difficulty of respecting one another.