Kuo Hsueh-hu’s "Festival on South Street" | Taiwan: Through the Eyes of Painters | EP6

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“Taiwan: Through the Eyes of Painters” series (#畫我台灣)of short films introduces the beauty of Taiwan through the eyes of Taiwanese painters. The series looks at the works of painters of different eras, exploring their social contexts and revealing the historical details behind the paintings, while comparing the Taiwan of yesteryear with that of today, to create a dialogue across time and space.

Eleven Taiwanese painters and their works are explored in this series. Each film was shot in 4K ultra-high definition and uses 4K animation to produce dynamic immersion in the featured paintings to give a cinematic viewing experience. Actor Huang Chien-wei narrates and the music is by Lin Sheng-xiang, Golden Melody Award multiple winner and winner of the 54th Golden Horse Award for Best Original Film Soundtrack.

“Taiwan: Through the Eyes of Painters” is a fascinating journey through the art and beauty of Taiwan through the works of six of its most important painters.


Kuo Hsueh-hu (#郭雪湖)was born Kuo Jin-huo during Taiwan’s Japanese Colonial Era and at 19 years old his work “Flying Spring in Pine Valley” was selected for the first Taiwan Art Exhibit. In 1928, his work was again selected for the exhibit, with the piece “Scenery Near Yuan Shan.” This painting uses Nihonga glue-based paint and meticulous realism techniques to depict a scene nearby a Taiwanese shrine. The tranquil countryside scene captures lighting and colors unique to Taiwan.

Kuo Hsueh-hu used his whimsical imagination to turn Dadaocheng into a scene seemingly taken of a magical realism film. Dadaocheng of the 1920s had already entered into the modern era. It boasted trendy cafés, movie theaters, Western medicine hospitals, traditional Chinese medicine shops, vendors, and Feng Shui masters. People danced to the latest records and made dates to the City God Temple. Kuo Hsueh-hu layered both real and imagined scenes of life freely depicting this period of Dadaocheng’s prosperity in his masterpiece “Festival on South Street.” This work which earned him a fourth selection in the Taiwan Art Exhibit depicts a moment of daily life in a Taiwan straddling new and old cultures. It also demonstrates Kuo’s meticulous observations of that era. The new and the old, the modern and the traditional, Japan and Taiwan, these seemingly conflicting and opposing cultural features are all smoothly embraced under Kuo Hsueh-hu’s brush. Brimming with this contrasting duality, the richness of “Festival on South Street” provides both an entertaining viewing experience and a perspective on the significance of that era.

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