Documenting Indigenous Lives:

Early film industry experience

Born in 1950, Yu Kan-ping entered the film industry at age 22 after completing his military service. He honed his craft under director Li Chia, spending seven years working his way up from assistant director and producer to executive producer, while also gaining experience in film editing. At age 29, he was called upon at a critical moment to take over directing Love and Sword (1979), which became a box office success and paved the way for his career as a director.

From Li, he learned the importance of discipline. “A director must demonstrate unwavering resolve and somehow turn the creative process, with all the emotional sensitivity that entails, into absolute rationality on the film set,” he says.

A recommendation from Li Chao-yung (right) brought Yu Kan-ping (top) into the film industry to work under director Li Chia (center). The photo shows them during the filming of the war movie The Big Mo-Tien Ridge (1974). (courtesy of National Culture and Arts Foundation)

Yu Kan-ping (right) started his career in props and then served as an assistant director and associate director. He first sat in the top chair before he turned 30. (courtesy of National Culture and Arts Foundation)

In 1979, the 29-year-old Yu Kan-ping directed his debut film Love and Sword, his only martial arts movie. (courtesy of National Culture and Arts Foundation)

Courage and vision

His film Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? was released in 1983. Though regarded today as a classic of Taiwanese cinema, the studio initially had little confidence in the project and even halted production at one point. As director, Yu drew from his own experience growing up in ramshackle illegally constructed settlements in Taipei to write the story. By incorporating popular music and dance, he pioneered a new style in Chinese-language cinema.

The film featured a large group of mostly newcomers: Liu Jui-chi had only recently entered the industry, Sun Yueh was in his first leading role, and Lee Li-chun had just made the turn from theater. The musical score drew from talents such as Lo Ta-yu, Lee Shou-chuan, and Liang Hong-zhi, with then unknown Julie Sue as lead singer, while Lin Lee-chen handled the choreography. “The film industry needs young, capable people to continuously replenish its ranks,” Yu remarks.

At the 20th Golden Horse Awards ceremony in 1983, Julie Sue was invited to perform musical numbers from Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? (MOFA file photo)

His masterpiece Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? (1983) combined popular music, dance, and film narrative, pioneering a new style of cinema. The photo shows a dance rehearsal for the film. (courtesy of National Culture and Arts Foundation)

A voice for the marginalized

Subsequently, he completed Taipei Myth and also adapted Bai Xianyong’s novel Crystal Boys for the big screen as The Outsiders (1986). It was the era of martial law, a much more restrictive time in Taiwan, and the film was initially banned because of its homosexual theme. It needed 21 cuts to make it into theaters.

Within a decade, he had completed nine films. They never featured heroes or great figures. “I sympathize more with marginalized people,” Yu explains. “They are the people I have filmed all along.”

His concern extended into activism. He threw himself into the Indigenous “Return Our Land” movement, the farmers’ movement, and demonstrations in support of the June 4th Tiananmen Square activists. Later he would take part in the Sunflower Student Movement. Yet, though participating, Yu always maintained an independent stance. “Once you get sucked in, there is no end to it. Once you lose your sense of objectivity, who will still believe what you have to say?”

Sun Yueh (center) won his first best leading actor Golden Horse for Papa, Can You Hear Me Sing? The film was nominated for a then-record-breaking 11 Golden Horses. (MOFA file photo)

Starting in the 1990s, Yu Kan-ping began visiting Indigenous villages and dedicated himself to documentary filmmaking. The photo shows him posing with Tsou children. (courtesy of National Culture and Arts Foundation)

MOFA file photo

Visual records of tribal life

Starting in the 1990s, Yu began conducting fieldwork in Indigenous villages. Witnessing the rapid loss of traditional rituals, songs, crafts, and native languages, he traveled to various communities to comprehensively document their ceremonies, myths, music, and dances with film.

In recent years, despite combating cancer, he has continued editing a documentary about the Paiwan people, tentatively titled One Hundred Years of Solitude. The film records the life journeys and changing eras through five generations of Tjuabal tribal chiefs and their families. His hope is that more young Indigenous people will learn about Taiwan’s history and come to “remember who they are.”

Although living a secluded life in Hualien, Yu still follows social issues and current affairs online.

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Through his association with universities and film training programs, Yu has helped to nurture Indigenous film talent. He also played a role in setting up the Taiwan Indigenous Television network. A few years back, he donated his entire collection of over 3,000 precious film reels and fieldwork records, accumulated over 40-plus years, to the Taiwan Film and Audiovisual Institute, ensuring that these materials will long be available to tribal communities and society at large.

Yu has used film to help protect vanishing cultures and record the lives of those easily overlooked. It is his firm belief that “every life should be respected and treated fairly.” From commercial narrative films to tribal documentaries, his body of work is not merely a collection of moving images, but also a testament to how people of this land once lived, struggled, and raised their voices in song.

Yu Kan-ping at his home in Hualien.