Digital Narratives of Oppression: Surveillance and Control in Detention and Devotion Depicting Taiwan During the White Terror
Digital Narratives of Oppression: Surveillance and Control in Detention and Devotion Depicting Taiwan During the White Terror

Summary/Abstract: Fang Ray-shin, a Taiwanese teenager during the White Terror, faces a harrowing choice: expose her classmates in a forbidden book club or remain silent, a decision that highlights the pervasive surveillance of the era, where silence equates to betrayal. This moral dilemma lies at the heart of Red Candle Games’ Detention, a digital game that immerses players in the atmosphere of suspicion and distrust prevalent in Taiwan under martial law. Alongside its successor, Devotion, these games are meticulously crafted narratives that reflect the paranoia and psychological trauma caused by constant monitoring. While existing studies have explored the historical context of these games, they often overlookt heir engagement with Foucault’s surveillance theories presented in Discipline and punish. This study bridges this gap by analysing the games as virtual representations of Taiwan during the 1960s-80s, investigating the portrayal of historical events under authoritarian rule and the concept of ‘playable surveillance’. This paper also argues that these games challenge and reinforce players’ perceptions of agency, morality, and resistance in the face of systemic oppression.

• Details
• Contents