Small Steps on a Long Road
細細腳步大路行
Ye Cai was born in 1946. When still quite young, he signed with Eastman Kodak Company as a professional photographer. For seven years, Ye traveled around the world to capture the beauty of all cultures. However, when he saw that people in Europe were very conscious of their own cultures and histories, he gave up on this prestigious job and returned to Taiwan, to the Hakka communities of Hsinchu county. There, he has devoted himself to capturing the essential moments of Hakka life and the beauty of the Hakka culture. Ye has photographed the authentic life of laborers and continues to create photos that chronicle the Hakka culture of Hsinchu County. His photographic masterpieces are a priceless asset to the Hakka people of Hsinchu and to all of Taiwan. This film documents the life and photographs of the artist. It explores the breadth and depth of Hakka culture in the narrations of Ye Cai himself, as well as Hsinchu villagers and local Hakka culture workers.
Directors
Ku Shao Chi
Shao-Chi Ku is a senior Hakka culture worker born in Qishan. Her family was originally from Meinong. Sixiian dialect is her native tongue. She has been living and working in Hsinchu for long so she speak fluent Hoiliu dialect as well. Currently, she devotes herself to video content creating and favors oral history. She produced Folk History Library for Department of Cultural Affairs, Hsinchu County Government and Oral History of Senior Civilization for Hakka Affairs Council. She was nominated for Golden Harvest Awards for Outstanding Short Films and awarded merit award twice in Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival. She won first prize of Nonfiction in Zhao-Zhen Zhong Literature Prize and second prize of Modern Poetry in Zhuo-Liu Wu Literature Prize.