Taiwan actor Chen Yi-wen and Malaysian actress Yeo Yann-yann pose with their trophy at the 56th Golden Horse film awards in Taipei on Saturday. Photo: AFP

 Without the participation of superlative films and talented actors from the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, the glory of this year's Taiwan Golden Horse Film Festival seems to have faded compared with the mainland's top film festival, the Golden Rooster Awards.

Taiwan's A-list cinematic talents like Lin Chi-Ling, Shu Qi and Eddie Peng failed to show up at the Golden Horse Film Festival, which kicked off on Saturday. 

Mainland observers said this year's gala was merely a "self-entertaining" show amid the intense atmosphere provoked by Taiwan's Tsai Ing-wen administration, as they warned that things will get worse if the Tsai administration continues to provoke secessionism.

News site Sina Entertainment reported that ticket sales and commercial movie deals at the festival are down without the star names. 

TFBoys member, Jackson Yee and Chinese actress Zhou Dongyu on stage at China's Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival's opening ceremony in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province, on Tuesday. Photo: IC

On the same day, the Chinese mainland's top film fest, the 32nd Golden Rooster Awards, kicked off in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province, featuring a raft of high-profile Chinese-language filmmakers and cinematic celebrities like Jackie Chan, Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige.

A number of popular actors from the island of Taiwan also favored the mainland festival, including Wallace Huo, Ouyang Nana, Darren Wang and Ming Dao. 

Without big names, the Golden Horse Awards lost the glory of being dubbed the "Chinese Oscars." Netizens said that the biggest name is Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, this year's festival chair, who admitted in an interview with Taiwan media this year that he feels a little nervous as it is different from previous ones.

The awards also lost a number of sponsorships, including Maserati, Bulgari and OPPO, after the mainland side decided to boycott the festival.

The Golden Horse festival has fallen far below people's expectations, and the political atmosphere on the island will definitely have an impact on the film festival's future, said Zhu Songling, a professor at the Institute of Taiwan Studies of Beijing Union University. 

Wang Jianmin, a research fellow from the Institute of Taiwan Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the Golden Horse Awards was once an influential stage for cultural exchanges between the two sides across the Taiwan Straits and all Chinese-speaking regions, however, its fall is inevitable, noting that last year's political comments polluted the award, which turned into a stage to promote Taiwan secessionism.

Last year, Taiwan filmmaker Fu Yu expressed her support for the "independence of Taiwan" in her acceptance speech for her award-winning documentary Our Youth in Taiwan, which tells the story of the anti-reunification Sunflower Student Movement. 

Chinese mainland actress Gong Li, the then jury chair, expressed her opposition to Yu's behavior by refusing to go on stage and present an award. In the wake of that, mainland filmmakers and actors did not attend a dinner party as a protest.

In August, the China Film Administration announced a ban on Chinese mainland movies and artists from participating in this year's Golden Horse Film Festival. Some film studios and entertainers in Hong Kong also announced a same decision later.

Secessionist remarks have touched the mainland's redline, whose boycott is not the only reason why the sheen is off this year's awards, Wang said, noting that development of the mainland's economy and cultural industries will get full support, let alone a potential audience of some 1.4-billion domestically. 

Mainland directors won four of the past five Golden Horse Awards (2014-18) for best director. The best actor of the past five years has all been awarded to mainland actors. 

Given the unstable political environment on the island of Taiwan, there will be more and more entertainers coming to the mainland, Wang added.


Newspaper headline: Shine shifts from Horse to Rooster