On June 29, 2007 (May 15, 2007 in the lunar calendar), Taiwanese film director Yang Dechang passed away. On June 29, 2007, Yang Dechang, Taiwanese film director, passed away. Yang Dechang (1947.11.6-2007.6.29) is a Taiwanese film director. His films are profound, rational, and have a strong social awareness. He is called "one of the most influential Taiwanese masters in the 1990s" and "the operating lamp of Taiwanese society". He enjoys a high reputation in the world film industry. Yang Dechang was born in Shanghai and grew up in Taipei. His ancestral home was in Mei County, Guangdong. In February 1949, more than one year old Yang Dechang moved to Taiwan with his parents and grew up in Taipei since then. Yang Dechang graduated from the Department of Control Engineering at National Jiao Tong University in Hsinchu in 1969. In college, influenced by Western ideas, Yang Dechang studied abroad as soon as he graduated. In 1970, he entered the University of Florida to study for a master's degree in computer science. In 1974, he transferred to the University of Southern California to study film and become a director, but left before finishing his courses. Later, he worked as a computer designer at the Naval Defense Anti-submarine Research Institute affiliated with the University of Washington in Seattle. In 2007, he died of colorectal cancer at his residence in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles on June 29 local time. He was 59 years old. His death is considered to be "the end of Taiwan's independent film era." Comment: The decline of a generation of masters in Taiwan's film industry!