How We Faced a Pandemic: Narrative Approaches to Disaggregating Asian Pacific American COVID-19-Related Experiences through a Cultural, Place-Based Lens

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled xenophobic and anti-Asian racism against Asian Pacific American (APA) communities in particular, which has led to increased incidents of anti-Asian hate and violance, escalated by racist language used by public officials and members of the media. In Washington state, a huge influx of anti-Asian sentiments and attitudes are especially apparent in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District (C-ID) neighborhood. Unfortunately, data often lumps APA communities into one monolithic community which can generalize the APA COVID-19 experience. The project aimed to create disaggregated data through the analysis of 32 stories representing 18 different racial and ethnic identities to show examples of how COVID-19 has affected different APA communities in King County, Washington. The stories were analyzed through a cultural and placed-based lens to reflect on an individual’s sense of place which, in essence, is how someone connects and responds to a place. Connection to a place matters as many of the stories highlight how individuals and organizations stepped in to form mutual-aid and community support networks largely because of their connection to not only their APA heritage, but also to the C-ID neighborhood, specifically. The final project was visualized and made digitally accessible using ArcGIS StoryMaps. When these personal narratives are placed next to one another, they intertwine, overlap, and further inform one another, which not only highlights the individual experience, but also shows how they can connect with the collective experience. The project was completed in collaboration with the Wing Luke Museum, a community-based museum dedicated exclusively to the history of APA communities located in Seattle, Washington’s Chinatown-International District (C-ID) neighborhood. The final project serves as a digital supplement to the Wing Luke Museum exhibit, Community Spread: How We Faced a Pandemic, which launched on May 7, 2021. A link to the published project can be found here: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/fc23a79ab4ee49279ee5ada9ee7f91a4.