Created in residence at OBORO’s new media lab, DIY Haunt is inspired by Lin’s childhood experiences in Taiwan in the 1980s and 1990s, a period of great political change and rapid economic growth. Martial law, imposed by the government of Taiwan between 1949 and 1987, was eventually lifted leading to the liberalization and democratization of Taiwan. 

Part a living tableau of memories and part healing process, DIY Haunt speaks to the social and economic austerity experienced after the Chinese Civil War. This performance installation reflects the different intergenerational experiences of this period which have led to separation, the emergence of boundaries and division. Yen-Chao Lin uses the capacity to resist as a metaphor for various forms of cultural conditioning that have already taken place and that continue to occur in Canada and elsewhere in the world.