Hu Tai-Li, Doyenne of Visual Anthropology in Taiwan has passed away, 9 May 2022
Hu Tai-Li had a PhD from City University of New York. She became known in visual anthropology circles worldwide when her numerous ethnographic films about indigenous communities started hitting the ethnographic film festival circuits in the 1990s. She thus participated in many festivals in Europe, such as GIEFF and several times at NAFA, establishing a lasting contact with NAFA over the years. Many a NAFA member has thus been invited to the Taiwan International Ethnographic Film Festival (TIEFF) of which she was the founding mother and she also, inspired partly by NAFA, was one of the founders of the Taiwan Association of Visual Ethnography. One of her most recent films is Returning Souls (2012), which won several prizes.
May Hu Tai-li’s own soul rest in peace, now that she sadly will no longer be undertaking film-based fieldwork, something she loved.
Peter I. Crawford, Manchester, 9 May 2022