Pandemic Crimes ScapeGoat Hunter 2020

Media: Interactive Game with Multimedia Database 

     Pandemic Crimes, Scapegoat Hunter is an interactive game that confronts the escalated Anti-Asian sentiments and Xenophobia surfaced during the Covid-19 Pandemic. It provides an interactive way for the viewer to look through a database of memes, tweets, Youtube comments, videos, and other media documenting Pandemic incidents of racism, biased generalization, and hostile othering of East Asian societies and cultural heritage.

This project is dedicated to the collection and preservation of racist and xenophobic content across web platforms, social media, and news sources during the COVID-19 period. By creating an independent and comprehensive database of Asian hate cases, this creative archive aims to expose the default response of racial scapegoating during the pandemic and highlight the oppression faced by the East Asian victims. Without documentation, there could be no proof that the crime itself ever happened, and the violent history suffered by victims are easily forgotten from collective memory. By gathering virtual evidence before they are lost or systematically erased, the project aims to prevent the painful history experienced by East Asian victims from becoming forgotten, and to hold global societies accountable for the deep-seated racism and social political scapegoating it fostered against East Asian diaspora during the 2020 global pandemic. 

It sheds light on how Chinese, Korean, and Japanese immigrants were unjustly blamed and attacked for the social, economic, and urban challenges faced by the majority, and seeks to stimulate discussions on more effective ways of responding to crises in the future.