Visitors to Taiwan have remarked about the relative serenity of the people considering the threats coming from the mainland. Indeed, talking about a Chinese Communist invasion and takeover of the island nation has been pretty much a culturally taboo subject, avoided on TV, in movies, in books, and elsewhere.
But as threats from the mainland get more specific and China's navy and air force make aggressive moves in the Taiwan Straits, the prospect of Beijing making good on its threat to reunite its "wayward" province is becoming all too real for the Taiwanese people.
In November, primary filming will wrap on “Zero Day,” a 10-part series that portrays what an attack by China might look like — a first for Taiwanese television.
What used to be taboo has now become a cottage industry. There's a novel set in the future where the Chinese have taken over. There's a graphic novel that sees Donald Trump sending the U.S. Navy to help repel an invasion,
How popular are these apocalyptic media? A YouTube trailer for "Zero Day" has gotten more than four million subscribers. On the day in July when the trailer was released, there was a real air raid warning, a not-infrequent occurrence, with the Chinese air force buzzing the island on a regular basis.
The 16-minute trailer had me glued to my seat.
A shorter version of the trailer.
“Taiwan does not lack [film] themes, but it does lack people who dare to act. I pay tribute to all the performers,” said one commenter.
“As a 21-year-old, I almost cried when I watched this... Every scene in these 17 minutes is actually very close to us. Maybe one day in the future, these plots will actually happen. Taiwanese people must protect this nation,” wrote another commenter.
Cheng Hsin-mei, producer and lead scriptwriter on "Zero Day," said that public attitudes about what it means to be Taiwanese are changing. Instead of seeing themselves as part of the mainland, they are beginning to embrace their Taiwanese identity. This may have implications for the defense of the island if China ever invades.
The show unfolds in the midst of a presidential transition in Taiwan, when the suspicious downing of a Chinese aircraft prompts Beijing’s People’s Liberation Army to blockade Taiwan. The stock market crashes and foreign governments begin evacuating their citizens. Chinese agents infiltrate Taiwan and conspire to release prisoners, who form a fifth column that sows chaos as Chinese troops prepare to land.
Such a series would have been impossible to do well in the past, Cheng said, because top figures in Taiwan’s entertainment industry were too worried about being blackballed in China, where the market is much larger. But those economic ties have frayed, with China becoming more aggressive toward Taiwan as Taipei moves closer to Washington.
“The Chinese dream that everyone had in the past is not as strong now,” Cheng said.
Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te has cautiously endorsed the Taiwanese identity, always conscious of not offending Beijing or giving it any cause to make good on its threats. His government has funded the TV series to the tune of about $3 million of the $7 million production costs.
I hope that the series can eventually make it to the U.S. The maintenance of Taiwan's independence is essential to the United States, and showing Taiwan's struggles to maintain its freedom would generate support and sympathy for its plight.
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