Bad Bias presents its first event revisiting experiences of COVID-era anti-Asian racism through experimental movement, film and sound, reimagined through East and Southeast Asian perspectives
Doors 7:30pm
Tickets: £12/15/20
COVID-26: Bad Bias in the Body explores what remains in the body after COVID-era anti-Asian racism and how it might be released together.
During the pandemic, East and Southeast Asian communities became highly visible targets of racism worldwide. While many of these experiences remained unaddressed and were treated as isolated incidents, they left traces that continue to shape how people perceive and move through the world.
COVID-26: Bad Bias in the Body begins from the recognition that these experiences continue to linger in the body as residues, and therefore explores them through a shared sensory and physical experience.
Bringing together artists from diverse East and Southeast Asian backgrounds, Bad Bias revisits these experiences through artistic experimentation in 2026, transforming what once felt scattered and individual into a collective moment of reflection and release.
PROGRAMME
The evening unfolds across three acts. Audiences are encouraged to experience the full programme.
ACT 1 – Movement (Ming Chin Hsieh)
The Weight of a Word is a contemporary dance performance responding to anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through rope, spoken words and facemasks, the piece explores how language, fear and bias can restrain and dehumanise the body, while gradually opening a space for reflection and resilience.
ACT 2 – Short Film Programme
A curated programme of four short films exploring pandemic memory and anti-Asian racism.
Moving from specific experiences to broader historical and social contexts, the films situate these stories within longer histories of racism while reframing ESEA identities through ESEA perspectives.
ACT 3 – Sound Performance (Angela Wai Nok Hui)
The Church Bell Cancels is a live sound performance centred around the resonance of a church bell. Through vibration, silence and the echo of the room, the work transforms the space into a shared sonic environment where personal and collective stories resonate through the body.
Ming Chin Hsieh is a dance artist originally from Taipei, Taiwan, now based in London, United Kingdom. Trained in ballet, contemporary dance, and martial arts Taichi, she studied at the National Taiwan University of Arts in Taipei before continuing her training at London Contemporary Dance School, where she performed with James Cousins Dance Company.
Angela Wai Nok Hui is a percussionist and sound artist based in London and Hong Kong. She uses sounds that are not meant to be, childhood-like sugarcoating to frame and tell the true story of the living, uses sonic elements to bring attention to the phenomena of activism and self-love with a bitter aftertaste.
SHORT FILMS
COVID Dystopia
Thomas Thorspecken / USA / 2023 / 4’
“We might be done with COVID, but COVID is not done with us.”
Fast-paced animated short about humanity's inability to adapt to a virus.
Wuhan Driver
Tiger Ji / USA, China / 2021 / 14’
At the onset of the pandemic, a Chinese Uber driver in New York struggles to make ends meet as he picks up various passengers on a long and dreary night.
Centuries and Still
Sally Tran / USA / 2021 / 4’
A mixed media illustrated short film by a Vietnamese creative team telling the history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the U.S. The film seeks to unveil how history took part in the birth and perpetuation of today’s surge of anti-Asian discrimination and hate crimes.
Sunny
Sky Yang / UK / 2020 / 7’
As a Chinese boy transitions from childhood to adolescence, he finds himself lost in a world that tells him he should hate where he comes from. SUNNY follows the story of a mixed race Chinese British boy who is ashamed of his ethnicity, and unsure of where he belongs.
Bad Bias is a London-based organisation producing multidisciplinary events centred on East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) arts and culture. Through curated programmes and experimental formats, we collaborate with ESEA creatives to create safe and creative spaces where artists and audiences can engage with ESEA cultures and stories.
@badbias.official
badbias.uk@gmail.com