Towards A Transpacific Future: A History Of Board Games In Taiwan
Towards A Transpacific Future: A History Of Board Games In Taiwan
Towards A Transpacific Future: A History Of Board Games In Taiwan
By Aria Chen
July 2, 2023
Summary
Looking at the current market of board games designed by people in Taiwan makes one question the meaning of "Taiwan." If this name refers to a national boundary and subsequently the cultural creations that represent peoples, experiences, and histories within that boundary, board games have presented a conflicting image of Taiwan, in which appropriated figures of Western empire occupy and dominate most parts while the more organic and original scenes of Taiwan tend to be poorly depicted.
It was released around 1962 by Li Guang Hang and it is still commonly seen in stationary stores in Taiwan nowadays, but the game was almost a direct appropriation of the game Monopoly released 30 years earlier in the U.S. The historical development of board games in Taiwan flourished with games like Uncle Wang's Richman - ideas and images discernibly adopted from the imperial gaze permeated the "Local," which had yet to share an equal status with the Western empires.
I saw the enthusiastic effort of many people in Taiwan who strive to create "Taiwanese board games," but as a Taiwanese person and a regular consumer of board games myself, I do not know how to appreciate their work judging from the experience I have had in Western games, leaving me with both a sense of guilt for not being able to admire their effort and a sense of inferiority for the games that I look down upon are the ones that dearly belong to my culture and my homeland.
6 The reaction to this Act from the people in Taiwan remains relatively positive, but we should not easily overlook the violent histories of imperial influence in the Pacific by forgetting Taiwan's own precarious state in becoming part of a defense network for the U.S. In this regard, I also consider board games as a humble reminder of Taiwan's relationship not necessarily with the U.S. but the aggressive entity of Western empires, because many modern board games, whether the visible trace of imperial influence can be clearly identifiable or not, are products designed in a prototypical model that was formed under the imperial gaze.
To understand further how cultural influences from Western empires has affected the development of board games and to see how people in Taiwan negotiate and navigate through these influences, we need to first identify the colonial themes and Eurocentric tendency in Western board games.
An unofficial but widespread categorization of board games we have today is the distinction between "Amerigames" and "Eurogames"; the former emphasizes "a highly developed theme , player to player conflict, and a moderate to high level of luck,"9 while the latter "Should have easily grasped rules, depend on strategy rather than luck, lack direct confrontation and require collaboration for progression."10 The distinction was made visible primarily due to the Spiel des Jahres award established in 1978 by a group of German game reviewers; nominees were and are still limited to games that have been released in German-speaking countries,11 and this annual award has arguably become the most prominent event in the board game industry ever since.
As a passionate board game player born in Taiwan, I long for more board games in which the element of fun ceases to hold a superior position, and I yearn to see more games that embody the inclusivity and boundlessness of the ocean surrounding this island.
Reference
Chen, A. (2023, July, 2). Towards A Transpacific Future: A History Of Board Games In Taiwan. Analog Game Studies. https://analoggamestudies.org/2023/07/towards-a-transpacific-future-a-historical-perspective-of-board-games-in-taiwan/