| Abstract [eng] |
The title of this paper is The Representation of Ghosts (鬼 gui) in 21st Century Taiwanese Horror Cinema. The aim of this research is to examine how ghosts are represented in the twenty-first century Taiwanese cinema, how these representations have evolved in response to changing social attitudes and political contexts, and how the ghost motif functions as a medium for reflecting national identity and collective anxieties. The objectives of the study include reviewing the historical and cultural development of ghost folklore in Taiwan from the Qing Dynasty to the “Ghost Island” (guidao) narrative; outlining the evolution of ghost representation in Taiwanese cinema from the Taiyupian era and the “Healthy Realism” doctrine to the New Taiwanese Cinema movement; and analyzing how contemporary cinematic narratives reshape the image of the ghost in the twenty-first century. The research applies structural narrative and visual analysis to the films Double Vision (2002), Silk (2006), Soul (2013), The 9th Precinct (2019), Incantation (2022), and Dead Talents Society (2024). The analysis demonstrates that ghost representation in Taiwanese cinema has evolved from a “scientific experiment” into a form of “digital content.” During the first stage (2000–2010), ghosts were depicted as technological and urban anomalies situated within “generic city” environments, emphasizing the tension between modernization and archaic spiritual traditions. In the second stage (2010–2020), the ghost became associated with internal trauma, emotional exhaustion, and institutional regulation, reflecting the “burnout society” and the phenomenon of “lost futures” experienced by modern individuals. The most recent stage (2020–present) marks the transition of the ghost into the digital sphere, where it functions as a “digital virus” or “content creator” within network society, reflecting contemporary pressures of hypervisibility, constant competition, and forms of resistance such as “lying flat” (tangping 躺平). The study concludes that contemporary Taiwanese horror cinema continues the classical “tales of the strange” (zhiguai, 志怪) tradition as a form of social critique. Through the supernatural, these films reflect anxieties surrounding geopolitical invisibility, institutional mistrust, digital alienation, and the absurdity of modern life. This research contributes to the fields of East Asian horror studies and contemporary Taiwanese cultural studies by providing a comprehensive analysis of the evolution of ghost representation and its relationship to Taiwanese identity in the twenty-first century. |
