This talk proposes an understanding of cinema as a form of soft power tool and Taiwan as a paradigmatic example of cinema’s effect in assisting a small nation gain prominence on the international stage. Its object of analysis is Taiwan New Cinema (hereafter TNC), a movement that begun in the early 1980s that has attracted global attention for nearly forty years. The talk will lay out the premise for TNC’s soft power and draw out some methodological implications for a study of this kind. In arguing for TNC’s significance as a case of a small nation with enormous soft power, this talk aims to push us to recast the terms and stakes of both cinema studies and soft power studies in academia.