Filmmakers connect creativity through shared roots – Chinadaily.com.cn
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Filmmakers connect creativity through shared roots
Returning to Xiamen University with a film project of her own, Taiwan filmmaker Li Tzu-ying described the trip as deeply emotional — a full-circle moment more than a decade after she first studied film on the campus.
Li was among the creators attending a cross-Strait young filmmakers’ session held at the university on Sunday. Hosted by the Fujian Provincial Film Bureau on the sidelines of the 2026 China Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival, which ran from Nov 6 to 10 in Xiamen, Fujian province, the event focused on joint talent cultivation and collaborative film production between Fujian and Taiwan.
The gathering highlighted the early outcomes of a Fujian-Taiwan young filmmaker integration program launched in mid-September. Out of more than 30 submissions from filmmakers across the Strait, 10 feature-length projects were shortlisted — many with Taiwan creators in core creative roles, exploring themes of family bonds, nostalgia, youth and Minnan culture.
For Li, developing the project with her partners from Zhangzhou, a neighboring city in Fujian, meant choosing the Minnan dialect — a shared dialect spoken across both southern Fujian and Taiwan — as the film’s primary linguistic vehicle.
“Minnan culture is inherently carried within the Minnan dialect,” Li said. “It is a culture born toward the sea, defined by migration and connection.” The dialect took root in Taiwan centuries ago as waves of migrants from southern Fujian crossed the Strait, carrying their language, customs and beliefs with them.
For Li, the most moving moments happened during story discussions. Despite growing up in different social environments across the Taiwan Strait, young filmmakers from both sides found themselves touched by the exact same scenes. Without needing much explanation, shared cultural roots allowed them to connect naturally and collaborate seamlessly.
That emotional resonance is also why Li insisted on dialect-driven storytelling, especially after seeing the success of Dear You, a hit 2026 film set in neighboring Guangdong province’s Chaoshan region and shot in its local Chaoshan dialect. Chaoshan is a coastal community that shares Minnan’s deep-rooted traditions of seafaring and overseas migration.
“When you create a work in a local dialect, you are deeply moved yourself,” Li said. “I truly believe that dialects are the most authentic way to express genuine emotion.”
That same shared heritage sparked a creative partnership between Wu Pengxiong, a director from Ningde, Fujian, and Taiwan producer Chao Yi-hu. The duo are collaborating on their fourth film project.
The work follows a group of teenagers from a fishing village and young students returning from Taiwan who form a grassroots soccer team on the muddy coastal flats, striving together toward a shared goal.
The story is rooted in real-life historical threads in Xiapu, a coastal county in Ningde. Its town of Sansha was home to Fujian’s first reception station for Taiwan compatriots — a natural harbor hub where everyone speaks the Minnan dialect. Xiapu also boasts a proud legacy of youth soccer excellence and regularly hosts cross-Strait junior soccer tournaments.
“If our film can help more people understand that people across the Strait are like one family, then making this movie is deeply meaningful,” Chao said, expressing hope that the project will encourage more young people in Taiwan to cross the Strait and experience the mainland firsthand.
That desire for genuine connection is also what drives Wu. During a cycling trip in Taiwan, the familiar food, shared dialect and warmth of the locals made him feel right at home. Along the way, he met the sons of aging mainland veterans, mainland spouses who had settled on the island, and Taiwan-born youth raised with stories of their ancestral hometown.
“Because these are real stories I have personally experienced, I know they have the power to truly move audiences,” Wu said.
Beyond shared dialects and grassroots stories, themes of nostalgia and root-seeking resonated deeply among creators at the event. For Taiwan filmmaker Meng Ching-er, whose grandparents moved from the mainland to Taiwan in 1949, stories of leaving home were a constant presence throughout her childhood.
In her final days in a hospital bed, Meng’s grandmother still vividly recalled the massive ship that carried her away from home. “She would mimic the deep booming of the ship’s horn, laughing at herself one moment and bursting into tears the next,” Meng said. Her grandmother never saw her parents again due to the cross-Strait isolation.
“For our grandparents and parents, their stories were defined by migration and homesickness,” Meng said. “For my generation, that sense of nostalgia hasn’t faded — it has settled deeper and rests even more heavily on our shoulders.” Carrying that weight, she embarked on a root-seeking journey to the mainland earlier this year, determined to fulfill her grandparents’ lifelong wish.
With 2027 marking the 40th anniversary of the resumption of cross-Strait family visits, Meng hopes her film will connect three generations — from the first’s separation and the second’s collective pain to the third’s rediscovery of their shared roots.
To speak to younger audiences in a fresh, authentic voice, her team is weaving Minnan intangible cultural heritage together with modern elements like drones and AI technology — transforming distant nostalgia into a living journey of rediscovery.
Zhou Xinxia, a professor at the Beijing Film Academy, said that a new generation of filmmakers is viewing cross-Strait kinship through a youthful lens — exploring grand themes through small angles.
“Their works focus on the vivid, touching lives of ordinary people,” Zhou said. “Yet they all share a common core: mountains and seas cannot keep loved ones apart, and every journey home has its time.”
To help turn such creative visions into reality, authorities in Fujian have organized support for these creators, from script polishing and production to festival promotion and distribution.
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