Hou Hsiao-Hsien's films: pursuing and escaping history.

This article situates Hou Hsiao-Hsien's films in the post Cold-War global setting. It discusses two common interpretive approaches to Hou Hsiao-Hsien's films - French auteurism and 'national allegory' - and puts these two approaches within their historical context of Cold-War and post Cold-War global politics. The article places the rise of Hou Hsiao-Hsien's films parallel to the rise of the mainland fifth generation of film directors, pointing out that their apparently opposite directions - Hou Hsiao-Hsien going political in his Taiwan trilogy and the fifth generation film directors going apolitical - are part and parcel of the same phenomenon of alternative politics in its particular contexts and the reconstruction of a new identity politics. Particular attention is given to Hou's Taiwan trilogy, Flowers of Shanghai, and Coffee Jikou. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]