Malaysian-born filmmaker Tsai Ming-liang (蔡明亮) had angrily withdrawn from the 2006 Golden Horse Awards because the panelists criticized his film I Don’t Want to Sleep Alone as “overindulging in his personal style.”
But in 2014, Tsai won Best Director at the Golden Horse Awards for his film Stray Dogs. In his acceptance speech, Tsai said, “This might only happen in Taiwan — where they would allow a Malaysian to quarrel with the Golden Horse Awards but still give him an award afterward.”
Perhaps Tsai was right about Taiwan’s tolerant attitude. Despite China’s aggressive boycott campaign to withdraw Chinese and Hong Kong films from the Golden Horse this year, the nominations included more Sinophone films from Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, and more. In other words, China's boycott has only further credited the Golden Horse as an international and prestigious film award in the Sinophone world.
