Tonight, the World has Lost a Great Artist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For the last few years, I have been hoping and hoping for another film by Edward Yang, who directed what has become one of the greatest treasures in my\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tonight, the World has Lost a Great Artist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For the last few years, I have been hoping and hoping for another film by Edward Yang, who directed what has become one of the greatest treasures in my\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Looking Closer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-07-01T07:37:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-02-18T23:16:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.dianying.com\/images\/portraits\/YangDechang.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey Overstreet\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey Overstreet\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/\",\"name\":\"Tonight, the World has Lost a Great Artist\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-07-01T07:37:25+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-18T23:16:41+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/2675c6d9f6401acd7568e32160e5374e\"},\"description\":\"For the last few years, I have been hoping and hoping for another film by Edward Yang, who directed what has become one of the greatest treasures in my\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Tonight, the World has Lost a Great Artist\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/\",\"name\":\"Looking Closer\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/2675c6d9f6401acd7568e32160e5374e\",\"name\":\"Jeffrey Overstreet\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14a7727373cd5b470d66842ecf5cc007?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14a7727373cd5b470d66842ecf5cc007?s=96&d=blank&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Jeffrey Overstreet\"},\"description\":\"Visit Looking Closer for Jeffrey Overstreet's latest writing on art, faith, and film. Jeffrey teaches writing and film at Seattle Pacific University. He left the Patheos network in 2015.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/author\/jeffreyoverstreet\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tonight, the World has Lost a Great Artist","description":"For the last few years, I have been hoping and hoping for another film by Edward Yang, who directed what has become one of the greatest treasures in my","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tonight, the World has Lost a Great Artist","og_description":"For the last few years, I have been hoping and hoping for another film by Edward Yang, who directed what has become one of the greatest treasures in my","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/","og_site_name":"Looking Closer","article_published_time":"2007-07-01T07:37:25+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-02-18T23:16:41+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.dianying.com\/images\/portraits\/YangDechang.jpg"}],"author":"Jeffrey Overstreet","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeffrey Overstreet","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/","name":"Tonight, the World has Lost a Great Artist","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-07-01T07:37:25+00:00","dateModified":"2013-02-18T23:16:41+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/2675c6d9f6401acd7568e32160e5374e"},"description":"For the last few years, I have been hoping and hoping for another film by Edward Yang, who directed what has become one of the greatest treasures in my","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Tonight, the World has Lost a Great Artist"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/","name":"Looking Closer","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/2675c6d9f6401acd7568e32160e5374e","name":"Jeffrey Overstreet","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14a7727373cd5b470d66842ecf5cc007?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/14a7727373cd5b470d66842ecf5cc007?s=96&d=blank&r=pg","caption":"Jeffrey Overstreet"},"description":"Visit Looking Closer for Jeffrey Overstreet's latest writing on art, faith, and film. Jeffrey teaches writing and film at Seattle Pacific University. He left the Patheos network in 2015.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/author\/jeffreyoverstreet\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1051"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":26462,"date":"2007-07-01T07:37:25","date_gmt":"2007-07-01T07:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookingcloser.wordpress.com\/2007\/07\/01\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/"},"modified":"2013-02-18T16:16:41","modified_gmt":"2013-02-18T23:16:41","slug":"tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2007\/07\/tonight-the-world-has-lost-a-great-artist\/","title":{"rendered":"Tonight, the World has Lost a Great Artist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ For the last few years, I have been hoping and hoping for another film by Edward Yang, who directed what has become one of the greatest treasures in my film library: Yi-Yi (A One and a Two)<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

But tonight, Edward Yang passed away<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cancer.<\/p>\n

The news breaks my heart. He was only 59. (Peter Chattaway alerted me to the news.) I did not know it, but he was sick for seven years.<\/p>\n

To watch Yang\u2019s work was to see the world through the eyes of a man who delighted in children, who sympathized deeply with the passions and burdens of teenagers, who wrestled with the demands of adulthood, and who was pained by the dehumanizing effects of progress and the big city. His movies focused on Taiwan, but they were not primarily about <\/em>Taiwan. They were about humankind.<\/p>\n

They were about looking closer. Just as the young boy in Yi-Yi<\/em> (appropriately named Yang-Yang) runs around with his first camera photographing the backs of people\u2019s heads so they can see what they otherwise could not, so Yang did just that: he captured life in a way that allowed us to see what we would otherwise miss about our behavior, our choices, the blindness that afflicts us incrementally, and the longing we all share for the restoration of something pure.<\/p>\n

Oh, and yes\u2026 he clearly loved jazz.<\/p>\n

I have seen very few films that can compare to Yi-Yi <\/em>in conveying such a deep understanding of the beauty and wonder of life. Yang\u2019s canvas was the big screen, but he was a painter. His medium was the movies, but he was a poet.<\/p>\n

Just as I still do when I think of Krzysztof Kieslowski, I will always wonder what Yang might have shown us if he had lived a little longer.<\/p>\n

For me, this is one of those wounds that won\u2019t heal.<\/p>\n

Time to get out the Criterion edition of Yi-Yi<\/em>\u2026 to laugh and gasp and be amazed. And mourn.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n

UPDATE: <\/strong>More (via GreenCine Daily<\/a>): A detailed bio <\/a>at Sight and Sound, and an interview<\/a> via The Guardian.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"