forced relocation

His films extensively chronicle displacement, migration, and the loss of home through Taiwan's turbulent 20th century history, particularly in works like 'A City of Sadness' and 'The Assassin'.

His socially conscious cinema repeatedly examines forced displacement, evictions, and housing insecurity affecting working-class communities across Britain and Europe.

His documentaries and narratives directly confront China's urban development and forced relocations, most powerfully in 'Still Life' and 'Ash Is Purest White', capturing the human cost of rapid modernization.