Rediscovering West Chinatown: Immersive Game Design Revives Toronto’s Chinese Cultural Heritage

This project focuses on recovering marginalized stories from Toronto’s West Chinatown. It aims to make these findings accessible through interactive means, promoting inclusivity. By integrating cultural studies, archival research, design, storytelling, and gaming, the objective is to develop an augmented reality (AR) game that introduces participants to forgotten stories of historically marginalized groups. The AR archive connects the historical aspects of Toronto’s Chinatown to the present, while gamification enhances engagement and enriches visitor experiences. This game—called Chinatown Time Machine—aims to recuperate the memory of not only erased architectural features but of historical events in Toronto’s West Chinatown through AR activities, bringing cultural heritage to life.