A Lost Paradise (2025)
Web-based Narrative Game
Project
Individual
Tools Used
HTML/CSS, node.js, midjourney, Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro
Please view with sound on for the full experience. :)
Inspiration
In the summer of 2022, I read Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise, a novel written by Lin Yi-Han based on her own life. Lin committed suicide 3 months after publishing the book in 2017, and her words remain haunting to me.
Fang Si-chi, a 13-year-old girl with a love for literature, is indoctrinated by her teacher Li Guo-hua's sexual abuse for 5 years. She struggles to live by believing that his abuse was love. Eventually, she suffers a mental breakdown and escapes into hallucinations, all of which are revealed in the diary of her good friend Yi Ting.
Book Overview
Characters & Plots
Symbolic Violence
The title "Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise" masks violence beneath terms like “first love” and “paradise”, framing coercion with the language of romance and innocence. This reflects what Pierre Bourdieu calls SYMBOLIC VIOLENCE, where harm is misrecognized as affection under the legitimizing power of culture.
Structural Metaphor
The novel’s table of contents is divided into three parts and form a structural metaphor: “Paradise”, “The Lost Paradise”, and “The Regained Paradise”.
Paradise
The opening chapter, Paradise, depicts not Fang’s world but that of her “spiritual twin,” Liu Yiting, who eludes Li’s control. In this context, Paradise becomes a metaphor for the untainted and joyful youth that should have been Fang’s.
The Lost Paradise
In the Bible, Adam and Eve lose Eden after eating the forbidden fruit as the result of their own choice and sin. “The Lost Paradise” mirrors this “fall,” and Fang Si-Chi is cast as Eve, but with a crucial reversal: Fang Si-Chi does not choose to “eat the fruit.” She is coerced into the fall by her teacher’s abuse. Her “loss” is loss of autonomous self.
The Regained Paradise
The final section turns to Xu Yi-wen, a young woman who survived domestic violence, is depicted as a metaphorical rebirth of Fang Si-Chi. “The regained Paradise” embodied Fang’s yearning for survival and self-determination, reclaiming autonomy after violence.
Case Studies
Taiwan - Novelist Lin Yi-han Dies Months After Debut
2017
Literary world in shock as Lin Yi-han committed suicide months after releasing Fang Si-Chi’s First Love Paradise. Her family revealed she had suffered abuse by a teacher during adolescence.
Beijing, China - Beijing Film Academy Allegations Silenced Online
2017
In June 2017, a former Beijing Film Academy student “Alyosha” published an open letter accusing a professor’s relative of sexually assaulting her. The case ignited heated debate online, yet public voices were quickly muted: the author could not be contacted, and related discussions were scrubbed from trending lists.
USA - The Larry Nassar Case
2018
Former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar was sentenced to 40–175 years in prison after decades of abusing young athletes under the guise of medical treatment. More than 150 survivors testified in court, including Olympic champions.
The above cases share the following common characteristics:
-
Long-term sexual abuse through educational or professional authority
-
Victims are mostly minors or industry newcomers
-
Institutional tolerance or cover-up
Research
Game Design
Design Objectives
Reveals how silence around sex education and unequal power harm minors’ safety and victims’ mental health, fostering awareness, empathy, and reflection.
Concept
The project is designed into an interactive form spanning 7 days, each corresponding to a year in Fang Si-Chi’s life. Players observe from a detached, god-like perspective. Each day begins with dressing the protagonist and continues through a map of her footprints. Interactions with personal objects unveil dialogues and recollections that piece together her story. To avoid consuming or exploiting her suffering, the design deliberately excludes explicit depictions of violence. Instead, events are conveyed through conversational implication.
Character Design
Scene Design
Game Flow
Coding
