Edward Yang
杨德昌
Taiwanese director, 1947–2007. He trained in electrical engineering and computing and worked in the United States for several years before returning to Taiwan to make films, becoming one of the principal directors of Taiwan New Cinema. Yi Yi brought him the director's prize at Cannes in 2000. He completed seven features.
Career
Yang was born in Shanghai, moved to Taiwan with his family as a child, studied electrical engineering there, took a master's degree in the United States and worked for seven years as a computer engineer in Seattle. He returned to Taiwan in 1981 and the following year directed one of the four segments of In Our Time, among the first films of the Taiwanese New Cinema.
That Day, on the Beach, Taipei Story and Terrorizers followed. A Brighter Summer Day, in 1991, runs close to four hours and takes its story from a killing in Taipei in 1961. Yi Yi won him the directing prize at Cannes in 2000 and was his last feature. He died of colon cancer in Los Angeles in 2007, aged fifty-nine.
