Watch this beautiful video, listen to the words of Billy Joel’s Turn the Lights Back On and, like me, I don’t think you’ll be able to get Taiwan’s unjust geopolitical exclusion (or the song) out of your head. While the first album I could fully sing the words to almost every song and Karaoke on was Billy Joel’s Glass Houses, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who finds his music catchy. (You can also find this video on Youtube with the text I’ve block quoted below).
This short was made not by a filmmaker (though it feels like it could have been), but by a lawyer, my friend, Michael Fern, a member of the Cyber Crime Division of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, and a first-generation immigrant, who grew up in Southern California, but attended schools in Taiwan as a teenager. His father’s side may come from a KMT, Chinese Nationalist party background, but Michael is fully in the here and now with what the people of Taiwan want and need.
My journey around the world with INVISIBLE NATION for the last six weeks began with his invitation to Washington, DC to screen our film and participate on a panel organized by the American Bar Association’s International Law Section called: “Who Controls the Past: UN Resolution 2758 and the Politics of Taiwan's International Participation.” While our discussion was off the record, and the important policy implications and ripple effects of the conference are in process, watching the video, especially after watching INVISIBLE NATION or reading the below, you’ll get to the heart of what’s going on internationally with the United Nations and Taiwan.
Billy Joel's Turn the Lights Back On speaks to one of the greatest geopolitical quandaries of our time -- democratic Taiwan's exclusion from the United Nations.
In 1945, the Republic of China, led by Chiang Kai-shek, was a founding member of the United Nations and held a permanent seat on the Security Council. That same year, the ROC also took control of Taiwan, which had been a Japanese colony since 1895. But by 1949, Taiwan became the ROC's last refuge from the forces of the Chinese Communist Party, which established the People's Republic of China.
For 26 years, the ROC maintained its seat in the UN as China's sole representative. But on October 25, 1971, the General Assembly adopted Resolution 2758, which declared that "the representatives of the Government of the People's Republic of China are the only lawful representatives of China" and expelled "the representatives of Chiang Kai-shek."
An ardent Chinese nationalist until his death in 1975, Chiang Kai-shek had opposed attempts to broker a compromise that would have allowed both China and Taiwan to be represented in the UN. Under martial law from 1949 until 1987, the people of Taiwan had no say in the matter. This period, known as the White Terror, was marked by the imprisonment and execution of political dissidents, particularly supporters of "Taiwan independence" who dared to express the view that Taiwan and China were separate entities.
During the 1990s, the ROC transitioned from an authoritarian one-party state to a democracy that reflected its Taiwanese majority, including their desire to rejoin the UN and other international bodies as Taiwan. Today, Taiwan is considered the most democratic country in Asia and one of the freest societies in the world. But Taiwan remains excluded from the UN, WHO, INTERPOL, and many other international organizations.
SOURCES
UN General Assembly Resolution 2758 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_...
Chiang Kai-shek's statement after the passage of Resolution 2758
• SYND 28-10-71CHIANG KAI SHEK STATEMEN...
The Distortion of UN Resolution 2758 and Limits on Taiwan’s Access to the United Nations https://www.gmfus.org/news/distortion...
White Terror Period - National Human Rights Museum https://www.nhrm.gov.tw/w/nhrmEN/Whit...
Taiwan’s democracy stays top in Asia https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiw...
INVISIBLE NATION opened in theaters in L.A. beginning with a sold out show at the Laemmle Glendale and now at the Laemmle Royal through June 27th. We’ve done three out of the five Q&As we’re doing this weekend (both the matinee and evening screenings to come today) and I cannot believe how meaningful it has been!
Our team on INVISIBLE NATION have been receiving the most incredible outpouring of thanks, respect, personal story sharing, spontaneous tears from audience members who become a community in lengthy Q&A sessions that don’t want to end and what feels like an unprecedented, overwhelming amount of positive messages and invitations to screen that keep coming.
I’ve been to many film screenings with Q&As in my life and I’ve never seen or heard or felt anything like this, let alone been able to experience and be a part of it. And in all honesty, I never imagined in our seven years of struggle making this film that when and if we reached the light at the end of the tunnel, we would be received by audiences with all the empathy, understanding, kindness and respect we poured into the film and bore witness to coming from the leaders and people of Taiwan. That’s not because we underestimate audiences or didn’t hope to connect as deeply as we are with this film, but that the response continues exceeding all expectations.
In another full circle moment, it feels special to have INVISIBLE NATION on a marquee with films and filmmakers I have so much respect and gratitude for: Karim Ainouz’s FIREBAND (which I saw at its premiere in Cannes and loved!) and Tom Tykwer’s RUN LOLA RUN (having its 25th anniversary, a classic, groundbreaking independent film I watched for the first time in Beijing when teaching a class on Law and Society at People’s University and working with filmmaker Wang Quanan who wanted me to see it and is the person who got me started on the film career I feared I had to avoid given my maternal grandparents’ film history!) !
I highly recommend Karim Ainouz’s film INVISIBLE LIFE and Tom Tykwer’s limited series BABYLON BERLIN. Tykwer’s series is the greatest inspiration for how I’d like to adapt the ten episode podcast I co-wrote and co-hosted with Karina Longworth about my grandparents’ film history in Hollywood that I linked to in my first Substack post (!), but which now I’ll mention straight out is called LOVE IS A CRIME.
I want to write so much right now, but I have to leave this post here and hopefully, leave you focused on how TAIWAN IS HERE RIGHT NOW. And, as the great Norman Lear (who we love and miss, but who leaves us inspired for life) would say, TO BE CONTINUED…
Thank-you for making Invisible Nation and shining a spotlight on Taiwan. I attended the Friday screening at Laemmle Royal in Santa Monica and enjoyed hearing the story of your inspiring journey in the making of the film. More people need to see your film and advocate for Taiwan. Bravo to you , Ted and your crew.😎🙏👏👏👏👏👏
Wonderful piece! Invisible Nation certainly deserves all the success it is having and you and your fellow filmmakers all the kudos. Audiences are connecting, because you put your heart and soul into the film!💐