Reality, Folklore, and History Meet in the Game Detention

Reality can often be far more terrifying than imagined horrors. In 2017, Taiwanese indie game developer, Red Candle Games, released a survival horror relying on this very idea. The video game, titled Detention (Fan Xiao in Chinese), is a 2D side-scroller that draws its scariness less from tactics like jump scares, but instead leans into atmospheric eeriness and a building sense of dread. The true terror, however, is rooted in the game’s inspiration from recent historical events and its reliance on the idiosyncratic culture of Taiwan.

As a Taiwanese-American myself, I was drawn to the ways Detention felt simultaneously familiar and novel. Much of its surroundings and mythologies reminded me of the stories my mom and cousins used to tell me as a kid. Stories about ghosts and dice games and rituals. A lot of it was still also new to me; namely, its political specificities. Yet, despite its distinctly Taiwanese base, the game never assumes knowledge or is ever too didactic. Players of all backgrounds can appreciate the slow, creepy burn that is Detention. However, to best appreciate the game’s gravity and beauty, it’s helpful to have some understanding of the Taiwanese history that it’s inspired by.

The History behind Detention

Detention is set in 1960s Taiwan under Chinese martial law – a period now known as the White Terror. After World War II and the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party took control of China. Nationalist party leaders (called the Kuomintang, or KMT) fled from mainland China to the island of Taiwan. There, they established a one-party dictatorship where they harshly cracked down on any hint of dissent. This was a period of great fear and unease amongst the Taiwanese people, marked by extreme violence, censorship, and a lack of civil rights and liberties. Tens of thousands of innocent people died and many more suffered other unspeakable horrors. Many of their names have been lost in time due to the subsequent destruction of government documents and government cover-ups. The White Terror lasted from 1947 to 1987, when martial law was finally lifted. Though Taiwan is now thriving as an autonomously ruled democracy, the country is still reckoning with its bloody past.

Red Candle’s game, Detention, was particularly inspired by the 1947 Keelung Senior High School Incident, which happened early on during the White Terror. Students at Keelung were caught reading and distributing underground Communist pamphlets. Students and teachers who were involved were arrested by the government, and 32-year-old Lan Ming-Gu – a writer and teacher at the school – was ultimately executed. These dark beginnings form the foundation of Detention.

Detention and Reality Gone Wrong

In Detention, the real ghosts are not the ones that haunt the school hallways, but rather are the historical realities that continue to haunt Taiwan’s present.

Charlotte zhang

From start to finish the game Detention held me in rapt attention. In the game, the player controls the character, Fang Ray-Shin, a student at the fictionalized Greenwood High School (which is based on the real-life Keelung Senior High School). At the start, after the prologue, Ray wakes up to find herself in a twisted, ghoulish version of her school. It seems to be deserted and all connections to the outside world have been severed. The bridge is broken. The river rushes dangerously by, flooded with what looks like blood. Phoning the police doesn’t work. Ray instead must explore her surroundings and solve puzzles to uncover the events and circumstances that led her to this nightmarish dimension.

The story line is well-paced, with three to four hours of gameplay, and longer if the player wants to unlock the various achievements on Steam along the way. The game is divided into a prologue and four chapters, each one propelling the player deeper into the game’s psychologically unnerving world. Ray’s inner psyche and family background are further unveiled with each new revelation, alongside the greater political and social forces involved.

In general, the puzzles were not too difficult, though some took more time than others and required more experimentation. Every obstacle the player faces is purposeful – illuminating a new facet of the game’s beautifully crafted storyline, characters, or historical/cultural background. Each one is cleverly presented and often requires the player to perform actions that are related to some aspect of Taiwan’s culture and mythology, or actions that are just simply downright creepy. For instance, a note in the hallway instructs Ray to hold her breath in the presence of ghouls – reminiscent of a game my brother and I would play as kids whenever we passed by a cemetery.

For Detention’s Taiwanese audience, the familiar scenes and stories of Taiwan are turned terrifying and grotesque, therein building an extra layer of fear. The feeling of security once granted by familiarity disappears – much like when a country’s totalitarian government turns on its own people, or when the citizens are made to turn on each other. Even for foreign audiences who may have never even heard of Taiwan, let alone its history, the terror is still tangible throughout. The game’s ability to foment these feelings and imprint them onto the player offers insights into the real, lived experiences as a student in Taiwan during the White Terror.

The game deftly weaves history, culture, and lore into a cohesive and engaging narrative. Familial drama melds with national trauma to create a robust story that makes the final moments of the game simultaneously rewarding and melancholy, even if not quite cathartic. What’s so stunning about this game is the way that once the credits begin to roll and the player returns to the “real world,” there arises a somber sense that the game is too true to life. In Detention, the real ghosts are not the ones that haunt the school hallways, but rather are the historical realities that continue to haunt Taiwan’s present.