Mysteries of Fence

Based on true events. In China, children who spent excessive time online were sometimes classified as having a mental illness and sent to compulsory "internet addiction rehabilitation centers" by their families. In 2008, Professor Yang's center received positive media coverage despite using electric shock and other extreme measures on teenage patients. In 2016, a former patient published a twenty-thousand-word autobiography online describing what she and others endured there. The physical and psychological damage was permanent for many; some self-harmed, some did not survive, and those who returned to ordinary life carried wounds they did not know how to name. A magical realism game adapted from that account.