I decided to make documentaries in 2008
Shooting "One Tree, Three Lives" was amazing
One day
I was organizing my files
And I found a letter of permission from Nieh Hualing's late husband Paul Engle
I wanted to make a documentary about him when I was in college
But the program was suspended with my return to Hong Kong
The letter aroused feelings in my heart
Because he had left us then
So I was seized by a whim and it felt like I had to do it
So I called Nieh Hualing
I said, Ms.Nieh
Is it too late if I want to shoot your story now?
And she laughed
The year was 1948, and I was 24
I moved my home (from Nanjing) to Taiwan
And I worked as an editor together with some great minds
Like Yin Haiguang, Mao Zishui and Zhang Fuqiang
And I was the youngest
And the only woman
That experience had a great influence on me
My mother and Paul Engle were the two most important persons in my life
Paul Engle visited Taiwan in 1964
You can say they were love at first sight
When Paul got back to the States
He kept trying to talk Nieh into applying
For the Iowa Writers' Workshop
Whose past participants include Pai Hsien-yung and Lin Hwai-min
Nieh went to the States in 1965
And they got married
It was so romantic
One day in the 70s
On a piece of squared papers
I wrote done the title of a book "Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China"
Personally, “Mulberry and Peach: Two Women of China” was a huge success art-wise
She incorporated literature and her life experience
Without a transformation and recognition of identity
Between Taiwan and America
If not for such fission
She could never have created such characters
In 1967 they founded the prestigious International Writing Program
Every year they invite global writers except Americans
About forty of them
Would live in the States for nine or ten months
It's a very active program
You can do whatever you want
Communicating, partying
Smoking, drinking
The whole of the law
Shall be Do What Thou Wilt 51 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:46,560 Paul Engle once joked
Jump into river if you will
The table
As she told me
Seated over 600 global writers
It's a history
The table itself is a history
I am a tree
I have Chinese roots 60 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:14,960 Taiwanese trunk
And Iowa branches and leaves
When she was in China
She was quite bothered by the fact
That her father was a KMT
She just loves her country so much
Deep down her personality is rather distinct from westerners
You see a hero in her
Even chivarious
Through the International Writing Program
She invites writers from China
To Iowa every year
She said that I brought Chinese soil to America
Writers from Taiwan and the mainland
Share the same language and ethnic origin, and they read each others' works
But actually they are estranged
This is the first step of their communication
What we are doing know, like this face-to-face interview
Was how Nieh Hualing envisioned her documentary
But we did it in a different way
We were there when she got up
We were there when she had breakfast
And for a while our photographer Zhang Yu
Followed her to markets, to buy groceries
She was like, what are you filming, I'm just walking
And she (Zhang Yu) was concerned
That the filming might irritate Ms.Nieh
I said no worries, just keep going
And we got the scene
Where her granddaughter rang in
Those are invaluable
Because in these circumstances
Nieh Hualing is real, is tangible
And a lovely person
Her love for literature
Her love for friends
And for people at large
Is genuinely touching
And even in a historical perspective, it has representative significance