The causes are worthy, the course is daunting – almost 500 kilometers across a stretch of the Pacific Ocean in a large canoe. It's the Hoki Mai Challenge, which started Saturday in Rapa Nui, a territory in the Pacific that is part of Chile and is better known as Easter Island. The event consists of a canoe voyage in which nine Rapanuis, two Chileans and one Hawaiian seek to raise awareness about the importance of women in the world, urge protection of the environment, and celebrate the union of the islands of Polynesia. The 12 athletes have been training six days a week since mid-September, preparing for a voyage that will take them from Rapa Nui to Motu Motiro Hiva, another island in the mid-Pacific that belongs to Chile. "It won't be easy," said Gilles Bordes, coordinator of Hoki Mai. "Three days and three nights." Bordes moved to Rapa Nui earlier this year, but he has lived in Polynesia for three decades, devoting much of his time to rowing. "I am very grateful to all the Tahitians for teaching me their culture and how to row," he said. "I came from France, but they accepted me and allowed me to share this with them." Hoki Mai pursues three goals. The first is to honor canoeing in Polynesia, which has been practiced for centuries. The second relates to the environment. Motu Motiro Hiva — also called Salas y Gómez — is an uninhabited island, but its land and the surrounding waters have been affected by pollution. The third purpose relates to gender equality. The team will carry a small female moai – one of the ancient statues for which Easter Island is famous — to raise awareness about the importance of women in the world. A bigger statue — carved by a local artisan for Hoki Mai — will be taken to Motu Motiro Hiva in March. During the voyage, rowing will be done in relays: groups of six will row for about four hours, then be replaced by the next shift. Those who need to rest will do so in a Chilean navy ship escorting the canoe. "The training has been hard, especially for those of us who are less experienced," said Konturi Atan, a 36-year-old historian. Atan said a crewmember invited him to join a few months ago while he was out paddling a one-person canoe. "He told me: I need you to come on Tuesdays and Thursdays to help us; we're lacking enough people to train," said Atan, who rowed with them, shared a meal, then agreed to join the challenge. On training days, they often started before dawn to get accustomed to the darkness they will face during much of the Hoki Mai. "We practiced rowing at night, we practiced getting little sleep, we practiced training every day. Gym, rowing, gym, rowing, gym, rowing. Except for Sunday, when we rest," Atan said. Spirituality and sacredness are pervasive in Rapa Nui, including cooking rituals and songs about their history. Sports also incorporate spirituality. Several days before the trip, the canoe built for Hoki Mai was blessed with a "umu," which involves cooking underground with hot stones in a sacred ceremony. "We did it with a white chicken," Atan said. "It is something spiritual. Eating a piece is a connection to our roots." Their cultural legacy is also linked to the moai, like the one they'll carry with them to Motu Motiro Hiva. The moai are perhaps the most recognizable symbols of Rapa Nui. Carved in volcanic stone between 1000 and 1600 AD from the slopes of the Rano Raraku volcano, they represent the ancestors of the various clans whose descendants still inhabit Rapa Nui. They were placed on ceremonial platforms called "ahus" with their torsos facing the island to provide protection. They attracted international attention in October after a fire damaged dozens of them. Ahus were built in some other places in Polynesia, but moais are exclusive to Rapa Nui. The bond between neighboring islands is still strong. Rapa Nui, Tahiti, Hawaii and even New Zealand share language similarities and other features. Now, with Hoki Mai, there's also an expectation that those ties expand beyond Polynesia. That's why the Rapanui and the Hawaiian will row with two "continental" Chileans, as the locals identify those who come from the Chilean mainland in South America. "The idea of the canoe is also union," said Gilles Bordes. "Six people doing the same thing to go forward. The union of cultures. That is why people from Chile are going to row, to show that together we can move towards a better future." ...

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Taipei, Taiwan — Organizers of Taiwan's premier film festival report a huge increase this year in entries from China, despite a ban imposed by Beijing six years ago on participation in the festival by Chinese filmmakers and actors. As many as 100 Chinese entries had been submitted for Golden Horse Awards in recent years, in defiance of the ban and without apparent consequences. But this year organizers say the number of movies and documentaries submitted from China shot up to 276. More than a dozen of the Chinese films are potential finalists, some in multiple categories. The winners will be announced on November 23. Industry analysts and directors say many of the Chinese filmmakers may have turned to the Golden Horse Awards to earn exposure for their movies, fearing they would be banned at home. Others point to the festival's reputation for hosting a diversity of films. According to a list of finalists released on October 2, Chinese director Lou Ye's pseudo-documentary, An Unfinished Film, and Geng Jun's black-and-white gay film Bel Ami were shortlisted for multiple awards. Wonder Weng, executive director of the Taiwan Film Critics Society in Taipei, said both movies are likely to be banned in China. He said that Lou, a regular participant in the Golden Horse Awards, has never bowed to the Chinese system and that his An Unfinished Film deviates from Beijing's favored narratives about the COVID-19 pandemic. Geng's Bel Ami, Weng added, challenges the values of the Chinese Communist Party amid a heavy-handed crackdown on the LGBTQ community. Among this year's entrants is Zheng Yu, a 27-year-old independent director from Inner Mongolia who specializes in expressing thoughts and emotions through images and who has been involved in film and television production for eight years. His entry, Her Dream in the Living Room is a short film that records how life for his family was changed by an elder's chronic disease. Although he was not shortlisted in the end, he told VOA that he still dreams of standing on the stage of the Golden Horse Awards one day. Zheng said there are three golden awards in the Chinese film industry: the Taiwan Golden Horse, the Hong Kong Golden Statue and the China Golden Rooster Awards. Among the three, "The Golden Horse Awards are more welcoming to varieties of films, and it is also more supportive of young directors, so this is why I wanted to apply for the Golden Horse Awards," he said. In addition to the film entries from China, this year's festival includes 277 entries from Taiwan, 72 from Hong Kong, 17 from Macau, 21 from Malaysia, 17 from Singapore and 67 from other countries. Ng Kwok Kwan, an associate professor at the Academy of Film at Hong Kong Baptist University, said the Golden Horse Awards are the oldest Chinese film awards on either side of the Taiwan Strait. Although entries from China, Hong Kong and Macao have been discouraged by politics, the Golden Horse Awards are still seen as major awards in the Chinese film industry, and being nominated for a festival award will greatly enhance a film's visibility, he said. Ng added that the festival has become the best channel for Chinese-speaking audiences to access excellent works, and it is also the ideal outlet for some non-mainstream Hong Kong and Chinese filmmakers. He said Hong Kong-made films received a total of 18 nominations at last year's Golden Horse Awards and finally won four awards: Best New Director, Best New Actor, Best Feature Short Film and Best Animated Short Film. "In recent years, some of the Hong Kong films nominated have been very good. They belong to a relatively niche and non-mainstream, and [the festival] has a special [interest] in the themes of non-mainstream, social issues, and experimental films, and I think it really has a certain contribution [to Hong Kong films]," he said. Seventy-two Hong Kong films participated in this year's Golden Horse Awards. From Now On, which explores the situation of older lesbians, was shortlisted for the Best Feature Film, Best Director and Best Actress awards. Among the five shortlisted films for Best Short Film, three are Hong Kong films, including Colour Ideology Sampling.mov, Something About Us and Letters from the Imprisoned: Chow Hang Tung. ...

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