Detention, a Game More Than Just Games

This paper's main topic is how Taiwan's self-made video game Detention affects Taiwanese young people's understanding of their history and how this will affect the promotion of transitional justice in Taiwan. First, it summarizes its features and achievements of the international video game industry. Moreover, after briefing the story content, it explains its strategies for interpreting the White Terror, the performance of trauma, and how the Taiwanese learn more about their history while playing games. Finally, it demonstrates the uniqueness of games from other traditional media, which provides another possibility and imagination for young people to understand history.

The Brigade of the Great Hungarian Plain The crimes of the most notorious military detachment during the wave of paramilitary violence called the Hungarian White Terror in 1919–1921, and the further life of a radical right-wing paramilitary commander

In 1919–1920s, paramilitary violence was an almost natural phenomenon in Hungary, like in many other countries of Central Europe. After the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire the new right-wing government, establishing its power with the help of the Entente powers, could difficulty rule the quasi anarchistic conditions. In 1919–1921, Hungary was terrorized by irregular military formations that were formally part of the National Army, and radical right-wing soldiers committed serious crimes frequently by anti-Semitic motivations. One of the most notorious military detachment was organised by young first lieutenant of the Air Force Iván Héjjas, who, with the help of his armed militiamen, abusing the anarchistic conditions due to civil war, build up his own quasi private state in the town of Kecskemét and in its neighbourhood, the Great Hungarian Plain. His rule lasted for two years, his subordinates murdered and/or robbed hundreds of people, mainly of Jewish origin, but later they were given amnesty. Héjjas later became an influential radical right-wing politician of the Hungarian political scene in the period between the two world wars. The present research article makes an attempt to reconstruct the wave of paramilitary violence of Iván Héjjas’s detachment, and also examines of the further life of a used-to-be radical right-wing paramilitary commander and politician who gradually became member of the Hungarian political elite, despite his notorious past.

What is Nikolai Klyuev’s “Hung Upside Down” Crying for? (On Poetic Epitaph to Victims of White Terror)

The article is devoted to the problems of historical and cultural commentary, as well as the interpretation of the ideological-figurative content and genre attribution of N. A. Klyuev’s poem “Hung upside down...”, created by the poet during the Vytegorsk period of his life (1918—1922). The analysis showed that the facts of Klyuev’s Vytegorsk life at the time of his creation “Hung upside down...” and the poet's deeply felt fear of being subjected to a cruel execution prompted him to literally perpetuate the memory of the victims of the White Terror who were martyred by hanging during the Civil War. The authors of the study come to the conclusion that references to the Bible and L. I. Palmin’s poem “Requiem” make it possible to attribute this work of Klyuev to one of the most ardent works of the poet of that time, calling on the living to selflessly serve the ideals of the proletarian revolution, and to identify its genre as a literary epitaph to the victims of the White Terror, which stands out for its monumentality and the timelessness of its valuable message to descendants. The authors of the article are convinced that the failed attempt by Klyuev to republish the poem “Hung upside down...” in 1927 betrays the poet, who is experiencing criticism of the counter-revolutionary content of his works, a desire to demonstrate the continuity of his later work with his “communard” past.

White Terror and the Discourse of Peace and Reconciliation

Since the lifting of martial law, museums have been established in Taiwan that draw attention to past human rights abuses under the Chiang regime and that promote human rights education. This chapter focusses on two such sites: the Ching-mei Human Rights Culture Park (景美人權文化園區‎) and the Green Island Human Rights Culture Park (綠島人權文化園區‎), as well on efforts to join the two together to form the National Museum of Human Rights (國家人權博物館‎). These sites have been the object of political contention between the DPP and the KMT, but both parties have used them to present Taiwan as a democratic society that respects human rights and is united with the rest of the “free” world.

Localization and culturalization for a history-based game

Released in 2017, the game Detention by the Taiwanese indie developer Red Candle Games gained great domestic success and made a name for itself among gamer communities worldwide. Providing an English-language localization upon its release, the 2D point-and-click horror game is set in the 1960s during Taiwan’s “White Terror” era. The story follows a ghost girl bound to the school she attended and unravels her tragic story. With such a specific temporal and spatial background, the game has a wide range of cultural references, potentially preventing non-Taiwanese players from being immersed in the game. This paper aims to examine industry practices within the theoretical framework of translation studies and understand, with the case of Detention, how culturalization operates at different levels. Through the lens of loss and gain, this paper also discusses how certain cultural connotations are lost in localization to retain the immersive game experience as an overall gain.

Taiwanese Identity – Past Factors and Present Circumstances

Taiwan is an island that off the coast of China. To say that Taiwan is a country is to offend the Communist People’s Republic of China which claims sovereignty over the island and markets it to the world as a “renegade province” which must be re-united with the mainland, by force, if necessary. For people who know very little about Taiwan and its big neighbour across the Taiwan Strait this may even sound convincing, but the truth is more complex. In 1949 the nationalist government (Kuomintang or KMT) having lost the Chinese Civil War retreated from the mainland; the communists have never ruled the island. The settling of the Republic of China’s government in Taiwan and the era of “White Terror” was another one in a series of historical events that were fundamental in forming the modern Taiwanese identity. Whatever the proponents of “one China” claim, the truth of the matter is that there is a shift in attitudes of the inhabitants of Taiwan in how they feel about themselves (Taiwanese, Chinese or both). This is a crucial fact that will have to be acknowledged in the cross-strait relations. The identity argument as such, is independent of any historical claims. And this Taiwanese identity has been evolving and will continue to do so, shaped by the past and the most recent events like the Hong Kong protests, the pandemic, politics and the military aggression and intimidation by the People’s Republic of China. This article will examine these factors in turn.