The Pandemic Chronicles Book / Publication / Landmark Writing

The Pandemic Chronicles is a free online comic zine that aims to illuminate the lived experiences of Chinese New Zealanders during the COVID-19 pandemic. Led by Te Papa Asian New Zealand Histories curator Grace Gassin, the zine is part of the larger Making Histories project at Te Papa, which highlights underrepresented communities and their experiences during COVID-19.

Driven by a lack of conversation around Asian diasporic experiences during COVID-19, Gassin sought to amplify the stories of Chinese New Zealanders and ensure these perspectives were being recorded, saying:

a lot of the focus was on China’s role in the pandemic globally and this was translating into a greater racial targeting of people who looked Chinese or East Asian. Yet somehow there still seemed to be very little activity happening in terms of talking to or documenting the experiences of people of Chinese heritage as part of Aotearoa’s history of the pandemic.

Readership accessibility was a clear intention in the development of The Pandemic Chronicles, with the zine being translated into both traditional Chinese (Mandarin) and simplified Chinese (Mandarin).

The Pandemic Chronicles features four fictionalised narratives about Chinese-heritage individuals living in Aotearoa between 2020 and 2021. Though the comics are fictional, they are greatly informed by the real-life conversations recorded as research for Making Histories — Gassin interviewed 18 ethnically Chinese participants of diverse cultural backgrounds between May 2020 and early 2021. These interviews became the basis for The Pandemic Chronicles comics. Illustrated by Chloe de la Lune and MZ, the zine ranges from depictions of family, food and culture to heavier topics of racism and anti-Asian prejudice.

The choice to translate the stories into fiction was predominantly to protect the privacy of the participants. Reflecting on the personal nature of the interviews, Gassin has commented that:

the conversations I had with the interviewees were very wide-ranging, often lasting up to two hours, during which we discussed everything from teddy bears to very personal experiences of anti-Chinese racism.

Because of the need to maintain anonymity for many of the participants, the zine was approached with a collaborative mindset, incorporating the perspectives of Gassin, Lune, MZ and the interview participants so that “through these comics, we’ve been able to collaboratively craft four considered stories which both reflect our interviewees’ experiences and honour their privacy arrangements”.

The Pandemic Chronicles holds space as a collaborative, community-based exploration of lived experiences, offering “insight into how our unique contexts (which differ from each other as well as those of non-Chinese) have shaped our experiences of this time”.

‘New online comics document lockdown life of Chinese New Zealanders’ — Te Papa

‘About The Pandemic Chronicles’ — Te Papa