Li, Yuan (2025) An alternative romance: the gendered codes in new Taiwanese language melodrama. In, Feng, Lin (ed.) Film History and Development of Screen Culture in and Beyond Greater China. 1 ed. Routledge.
Abstract
Adapted from a Korean film of the same title, Man in Love (Dang nanren lian’ai shi, dir. Yin Chen-Hao, 2021) is recontextualised into a Taiwanese-Hokkien-speaking setting in northern Taiwan. It evokes nostalgia through classic melodramatic themes such as love, death, and money. This chapter positions Man in Love within the realm of new Taiwanese-language melodrama and highlights its bilingual representation. Drawing on Byung-Chul Han’s The Agony of Eros (2012) and Michael Hardt’s For Love or Money, I explore the film’s portrayal of love in both romantic and political dimensions. By comparing Man in Love to earlier Taiwanese-language melodramas, I argue that director Yin Chen-Hao introduces certain innovations in reinterpreting “Taiwanese aesthetics” through romance. However, the expressions of love in this film are depicted within a biased gendered framework.
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