“Here, on the banks of this river that was the lifeblood of Santa Cruz’s last Chinatown, it is hard to imagine those lost bodies, those child bodies… fishing steelhead trout, catching little frogs and river creatures: the way play looks before capitalism takes over.” ~ Lost Chinatowns: A Solo Show by Cynthia Ling Lee
This video documents a current in-progress collaboration between artists Cynthia Ling Lee and Take Action Games (TAG). LOST CHINATOWNS EVERYWHERE is a mobile game about the historical erasure, lost vibrancy, and violent destruction of Santa Cruz’s Chinatowns from 1860-1955. It adapts and expands an existing performance by dancer and choreographer Cynthia Ling Lee. The game combines dance-theatre, documentary, augmented reality, and volumetric video with casual player mechanics based on gesture and movement.
Together, Lee and TAG look at the racist histories of ‘progressive’ Santa Cruz through a multidisciplinary lens that positions dance, play, and documentary as three distinct yet interconnected domains. Using this multidisciplinary lens, we imagine the social and aesthetic potential of merging physical public and private space with mobile media and play.
This project is also a declaration that Asian Americans are deeply connected with the rest of the POC community in the common struggle against racial hierarchies and white supremacy.
This prototype is based on the LOST CHINATOWNS solo and ensemble live performances by Cynthia Ling Lee and developed by Take Action Games with Chris Kerich, Adrian Phillips, and Joshua Tuthill.