A fever inspired by Oscar-winning Taiwan director Ang Lee has hit Taiwan's auction and shopping websites, which are trying hard to cash in on a so-called "Ang Lee fever" by marketing peripheral products on-line.

 

After Ang Lee won best director Oscar for his movie Brokeback Mountain earlier this month, his name and the film's title have become the two most frequent keywords used in searches of local websites, according to a report reaching Hong Kong from Taipei on Thursday.

 

When Internet surfers type in "Ang Lee" or Brokeback Mountain, search engines list a wide array of goods at auction or shopping websites that are using the links to sell other products like milk powder or heat-reflective paper.

 

Some Yahoo auction sites have swiftly listed on-line newly-packed peripheral products from Lee's past films -- original soundtrack CDs, original screenplays, novels or movie posters, and have received a huge number of inquiries from interested bidders.

 

According to an executive of the local shopping website So-net, her company is planning to launch more than 100 special products in a series -- Bravo for Ang Lee -- including checked shirts, cowboy clothes and accessories, as well as body shampoo, perfume, silver ornaments and boots for men, among many other items.

 

The most red-hot item on most shopping websites are DVD collections of all the work the award-winning director has ever made, both in Taiwan and overseas.

 

Lee, born in 1954 in southern Taiwan's Pingtung County, was the first film maker in Asia to win best director Oscar.

 

Ang Lee's gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain also won Oscars for best original score and best adapted screenplay at the 78th annual Academy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles.  

 

(Xinhua News Agency March 10, 2006)