Written by Sheng-mei Ma. Part II of the article perceives Detention as a haunting of Taiwan’s White Terror, where Fang’s guilt, forbidden love, and suppressed memory recur through ghosts, banned texts, and images of facelessness and decapitation. Its hybrid cultural references reveal Taiwanese identity as historically layered, while headlessness symbolises political violence, erasure, and unresolved collective trauma.
Written by Sheng-mei Ma. In Part I of the article, the author examines how the film Detention (2019), through a return to Taiwan’s White Terror, exposes unresolved tensions among Chineseness, Taiwaneseness, and Japanese colonial legacies. Through Fang’s mixed family, religious practices, and betrayal of the banned Study Group, the film links political repression with intimate conflicts of love, resentment, identity, and betrayal.
Written by Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley. This article explores how food functions as a cultural language in Taiwan through three works: Eat Drink Man Woman, Zone Pro Site, and Taiwan Travelogue. It argues that food expresses family ties, community traditions, colonial encounters, and cultural hybridity, offering a compelling lens for understanding Taiwanese identity and memory.
Written by Sheng-mei Ma. This article reads Splendid Float (2004) as an allegory for Taiwan’s uncertain political and cultural identity. Through the dual life of a drag queen and Taoist priest, the film links gender fluidity, folk funeral rituals, and queer performance to Taiwan’s status as a marginalised “ghost island,” and explores themes of belonging, loss, alterity, and national ambiguity.
Written by Sheng-mei Ma. This article argues that the film Left-Handed Girl (2025) uses Taiwan’s night markets, betel nut culture, and the stigma surrounding left-handedness to critique patriarchal power. Through a multigenerational family drama centred on women’s resilience, the film exposes how oppression is perpetuated by both men and women while imagining a restored matrilineal bond that challenges inherited social hierarchies and cultural prejudices.
Written by Ming-yeh T. Rawnsley (蔡明燁). Drawing on Behind The Scenes’ reflections on Taiwan’s democratic development and the Tangwai movement, this article explores contemporary debates over peace, security, and the costs associated with preserving freedom and democracy. At its core, it asks readers to reflect on the meaning of peace and the risks societies may choose to acknowledge – or ignore – in pursuing it.
