1. ‘Tag, You’ve Got Coronavirus!’ Chase Games in a Covid Frame

Abstract

Children in many parts of the world commonly play games of touch chase, in which the chaser catches the other players by tapping them, the role of chaser often then transferring to the caught player. At the time of the global spread of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, reports began to crop up, especially on social media, of children playing chasing games with names like Coronavirus Tag, Corona Tip, Infection and Covid Tiggy. In these, the chaser was the virus and had to chase the others who, when caught, then ‘got the virus’. Games with ‘corona rules’ also emerged, in which children adapted the chase games to circumvent or accommodate social distancing measures imposed on them. The chapter draws on children’s testimony and adults’ observations of these coronavirus tag games, particularly Twitter posts, to trace their rapid emergence on an international scale, their varied and ingenious forms and potential functions. The focus is on the players’ perceptions and experiences in order to emphasize the fluidity and dynamism of this play and to trouble adults’ tendency to adult-centric and monolithic interpretations. The chapter argues that it is essential to consider such games both in the context of the pandemic and from a comparative and historical perspective. This highlights that what children did in making their games of coronavirus tag is in fact just one example of what they do on a day-to-day basis when there is no pandemic, drawing on mediascapes, and the material, environmental and temporal resources available to them, in often overlooked and undervalued acts of everyday creativity and resourcefulness.