Wang Toon

Wang Tong was born Wang Zhonghe in Anhui in 1942. He moved to Taiwan with his family in 1949 due to the Chinese Civil War. Wang studied at the National Taiwan Academy of Arts (國立藝術專科學校) from 1962 to 1965, under the guidance of teachers such as Long Sihliang (龍思良), Gao Yifeng [zh] and Wu Yaozong (吳耀宗). When he was young, Wang was nourished by inspiring journals, such as Juchang (劇場; Theatre Magazine) and Wenxue jikan (文學季刊; Literature Magazine), and his association with contemporary poets and painters, including Chen Yingzhen and Wei Tiancong (尉天聰), and Huang Chunming (黃春明) at Cafe Astoria (明星咖啡館). It was there that Wang Tong read the manuscript of the novel Days of Watching the Sea (看海的日子) by Huang Chun-ming, which he later adapted into a popular feature film A Flower in The Raining Night (1983).^[5]

Wang received his first opportunity in 1963 after joining Yuan Qiufeng (袁秋楓)'s production of Songfest (1963) as an art assistant. Realizing that he was good at art design, and that he could earn more than his classmates who were working as art teachers, Wang decided to stay working in the film industry.^[5] Wang joined the Central Motion Picture Corporation in 1966, where he was mentored by Johnson Tsao Chuang-Sheng (曹莊生) on various aspects of film production and production design. During this time, he gained experience working as an art director for films by Lee Hsing, Ting Shan-hsi, Pai Ching-jui [zh], Sung Tsun-shou and Richard Chen Yao-chi (陳耀圻). He also seized whatever opportunities he could to learn from other directors he admired, such as Li Han-hsiang and King Hu to polish his production skills.^[5]

In 1981, Wang made his debut feature film, If I Were for Real, while continuing to work as an art director for his own films and for other directors. Two years later, he directed A Flower in the Rainy Night (1983), an adaptation of Huang Chun-ming's novel, Days of Watching the Sea (看海的日子). The film was a box office success and won two Golden Horse Awards: Lu Hsiao-fen for Best Leading Actress and Ying Ying (英英) for Best Supporting Actress.

Wang's next directorial effort was the wuxia film Run Away (策馬入林; 1984). It was praised for its realistic style, relative to similar productions from the 1960s and 1970s. His next film, Spring Daddy [zh] (1985) was about a family consisting of a mainland veteran father and a Taiwanese mother, a social phenomenon depicted in many 1980s Taiwanese films.

Wang subsequently made three films about Taiwan's history from the colonial time of the 1920s to the civil war between the nationalist and communist parties in the mid 20th century: Strawman (1987), Banana Paradise [zh] (1989), and Hill of No Return [zh] (1992). These films, all realistic depictions of the life experiences of local Taiwanese and mainland immigrants, are also known as Wang's Taiwan trilogy. Red Persimmon (紅柿子, 1995) was an autobiographical film based on his childhood memories. Wang's 12th feature A Way We Go (自由門神, 2002) was a contemporary dark comedy about three socially marginalized young men in globalized urban Taipei. After a 13-year hiatus from directing, Wang returned with Where the Wind Settles (2015), which told the story of a group of mainland refugees forming a new family in Taipei after 1949.

Wang is also involved in the production of animated films. In 2002, he joined Wang Film Productions Co. Ltd. (宏廣股份有限公司), founded by his elder brother Wang Zhong-yuan (王中元). He directed Fire Ball [zh] (2005), an adaptation of Chinese novel Journey to the West. The film won Best Animated Feature at the 42nd Golden Horse Awards and Best Animated Feature at the 50th Asia-Pacific Film Festival. The other film, A Story about Grandpa Lin Wang, never came to fruition.

Wang was promoted to be the director of Central Motion Picture Corporation Studio (中影製片廠) in 1997. Under his helm, the company established the first and exclusive high-tech post-production studio in Taiwan's film industry, with synchronous recording cameras, lighting equipment, and computer editing capacity. Wang also established Taiwan's first Dolby recording studio, Central Motion Pictures Corporation Dolby Recording (中影杜比錄音室). At the same time, he also worked as the chairman of the Taipei Film Festival from 1997 to 2002. In 2003, when he served as the CEO of the executive committee of the Golden Horse Awards (臺北金馬影展執行委員會), Wang established the Golden Horse Film Project Promotion (金馬創投) which brings regional and international industry professionals to Taiwan with the purpose of developing international joint ventures and cross-productions.^[4]

Wang was also devoted to education. He took a teaching position in the Department of Filmmaking at the Taipei National University of the Arts in 2007 and served as the chair from 2010 to 2013 and 2017 to 2019. After retiring from the university in 2019, Wang was presented the Art Education Contribution Award (藝術教育貢獻獎) by the Ministry of Education in 2022.^[4]

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