From the Score to the Struggle: Three Stories, One Fight for Freedom
Congratulations to Wei-San Hsu our passionate composer on "Invisible Nation" and new Academy member!
Let Me Start with Joy
Wei-San Hsu, the brilliant Taiwanese composer of INVISIBLE NATION, was just invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. She is one of only four Taiwanese artists recognized this year, alongside Peggy Chiao, Mong-Hong Chung, and Yang-Hua Hu. That Wei-San, an artist whose music scored a film about Taiwan’s embattled democracy, should now be inducted into Hollywood’s highest artistic circle is fantastic!
Her response was so Wei-San:
“Thank you for making this film that truly inspired me and ignited my passion writing the score and promoting the film that is making Taiwan visible on the global stage, and shining a light on a Taiwanese female composer.”
In a world where representation is resistance, Wei-San’s elevation is not just an accolade. It is a quiet revolution.
I’m truly thrilled for all the other new members of the Academy class of 2025!
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A Plot Against Taiwan’s Vice President
This week, revelations surfaced that the Chinese military plotted to crash into Hsiao Bi-Khim’s vehicle during her diplomatic trip to Prague in 2024. This was confirmed by Czech intelligence. The plot was nearly carried out in a high-speed intersection. In a chilling twist, Taiwan’s own Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers proposed a legislative change shortly after: if a vice president-elect were to die before inauguration, the president-elect would also lose the mandate. A kill switch for democracy.
Internal-external collusion?
This is the price of leadership for women like Vice President Bi-Khim Hsiao. This is the threat they face, not just from Beijing’s shadow games, but from domestic actors who would rather burn down the house than let a truly pro-democracy woman like her hold the keys.
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Jimmy Lai’s Birthday in Captivity
Finally, across the South China Sea in Hong Kong, Jimmy Lai spent his 77th birthday under house arrest IN A MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON, nearing his 1,700th day in detention. Four years ago this week, Hong Kong’s Apple Daily, the last major pro-democracy newspaper, Lai’s paper, was shut down. Lai is a billionaire who could have fled Hong Kong like so many others, but he chose to stay and fight. Lai is being tried under the National Security Law, his life hanging in the balance, not for violence or fraud, but for publishing truths.
China’s crackdown on Hong Kong is a fate that Taiwan does not want to share nor should it ever have to endure. And yet, the policy of “one country, two systems” that Deng Xiaoping tested on Hong Kong, was always intended for Taiwan. The fact that the Chinese government violated that agreement makes Hong Kong’s current predicament that much more of a warning to Taiwan.
Former President Ma Ying-jeou is in China attempting to negotiate for “a peaceful and democratic unification with China.” But China is not democratic nor has it been peaceful in its treatment of Taiwan. Will it respect Taiwan’s democracy and be peaceful toward it when it won’t respect its current president enough to invite him to the negotiating table as an equal? None of these questions can be answered in a vacuum that doesn’t take into account the terrible levels of rivalry at play between the US and China. That rivalry must be toned down and phased out.
The U.S. strategy of entrenched great-power rivalry with China is deeply flawed. Rather than strengthening the nation, this approach undercuts democracy, weakens peace, and harms prosperity in the US, in China, in Taiwan and all over the world. We have been experiencing this trend for decades from Washington to Hollywood to Beijing and the results are plainly increasing authoritarianism and silencing of voices in politics and culture.
Lai is a British citizen. A Catholic. A father. A publisher. A believer in freedom. His cell is the stark reminder of what happens when regimes criminalize dissent and the world looks away.
We cannot look away or fail to celebrate the little triumphs of every person who helps make this world a safer, more democratic, more inclusive place for all.
Congratulations again, Wei-San! All of us on INVISIBLE NATION are so happy to keep lifting you up and watching you soar!
xoVanessa