Performing Trauma: Representing Taiwanese Massacre “White Terror” in Horror Video Game “Detention

Abstract

           “Detention” is a horror game about life and trauma of Rei, a young protagonist who lived under a White Terror period in which a Taiwanese’s authoritarian regime declared a last long martial law. The player is following Rei’s past traumatic memories through an allegoric image of horror genre that recreates a sense of terror under an authoritarian regime in a supernatural horror disguise. The core narrative of Detention is a performing trauma that is to solve a violently puzzle gameplay which embodies a traumatic past of protagonist and also a traumatic past of White Terror’s Taiwan. Therefore, the past traumatic memories of Rei and Taiwan can be revived and remembered via these violently puzzle gameplay. Furthermore, the narrative of video game media can allow the player to take on various roles of the protagonist, the controller, and the audience simultaneously while playing the game. The various roles that the player takes on create a tension in an identification process with a protagonist, as a result, the player will disidentify with a protagonist and creates a distancing remembrance in the other’s trauma. At the end Detention is a symptom of White Terror’s memory in Taiwan that cannot be fully remembered or forgot.