While I’m hesitant to comment on the readings without actually having seen the “I Must First Apologize…” exhibition itself, I found it surprising that both commentaries approached it from the same angle, by contextualizing the scam messages and their narrative with the contemporary neoliberal world - specifically, the “ghostly”, “neurotic” capitalism. While the angle is certainly interesting and thought-provoking, it’s not the only approach, and isn’t necessarily the most fitting.

When comparing the increase in number of scam victims in China, Laura Marks writes: “What does this suggest to you? That the “Chinese dream” is quickly turning into a nightmare, for Chinese citizens are both scamming each other and buying into scams, despairing of surviving the new teeth-baring economy?” To me, it instead suggests that the growing Chinese middle class is now empowered to spend some money on investment decisions and as a consequence make more mistakes in these decisions. There obviously isn’t one correct answer - it would have been interesting to see other interpretations in either of the essays, especially because a different context would likely give new insights about the motives, narratives and ethics of the scam emails.