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Chinese director Zhu Yu withdraws film from Taiwan’s Golden Horse awards

  • Beijing called for boycott of the high-profile festival amid rising tensions across the strait, but filmmaker had previously decided to defy it
  • Documentary has now been withdrawn, with Zhu saying ‘rumours and cyberbullying’ had threatened her safety

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Director Zhu Yu’s documentary about four young Taoist priests on a pilgrimage through China has been withdrawn from the film festival. Photo: Handout
Phoebe Zhangin Shenzhen
Chinese documentary director Zhu Yu, who previously was ready to defy Beijing’s boycott of Taiwan’s Golden Horse awards, has withdrawn from the film festival.
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The Beijing Film Academy graduate announced on an unverified Weibo account on Saturday that she and her film, Young People Question Taoism, would no longer be in the running for the high-profile awards.

“I will completely abide by the orders of the China Film Administration, but when I signed up, the [Chinese] administration had not announced the news [of the boycott],” she said on the social network.

“I’m an ordinary citizen, not a celebrity … so nobody read about the news of me withdrawing from the competition,” she said. “In fact, there were many rumours and much cyberbullying – my safety has been threatened, so I’m making this clarification now.”

Zhu did not respond to a request for comment.

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The Taoist priests in the documentary go on a pilgrimage as they seek the true meaning of their faith. Photo: Handout
The Taoist priests in the documentary go on a pilgrimage as they seek the true meaning of their faith. Photo: Handout
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