Documentary spotlights origins of Taiwan's chip industry

紀錄片聚焦台灣晶片產業的起源

Director says film about semiconductors comes at significant time in geopolitics


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A documentary spotlighting the development of Taiwan's chip industry will be released in June.

"A Chip Odyssey” (造山者) is Taiwan's first documentary about the history of its semiconductor industry, per CNA. The film was produced at a significant time in geopolitics, considering US President Trump’s tariffs and claims that Taiwan stole the US chip industry, noted CNEX Studio Corporation CEO Ben Tsiang (蔣顯斌).

Tsiang said the documentary tells the origin of Taiwan's chip industry, which started from scratch 50 years ago. Director Hsiao Chu-chen (蕭菊貞) said it gives the world an understanding of how Taiwan’s engineers and workers worked tirelessly over generations to create leading semiconductor achievements.

The film was a five-year-long production journey. Tsiang said it started from a phone call when a friend inspired by the farewell ceremony of Taiwanese IT pioneer Hu Dinghua (胡定華) asked him to create a documentary.

Hu was instrumental in Taiwan’s rise as a global power in the semiconductor industry. He helped establish the Industry Technology and Research Institute and Electronic Research and Services organization, whose technologies were then successfully spun off as the foundations of semiconductor giants like TSMC.

The documentary will premiere in Taiwan on June 13. It is scheduled to be shown overseas at the end of the year.

CNEX is a cultural NGO of documentary enthusiasts. It is dedicated to making and promoting documentaries in Chinese.