500 Men, Games and Free Gifts: 1 Pack of Q-tips, 1 Pack of Napkins, 1 Pen, 1 kg Sack of Sugar, 1 kg Sack of Salt, 1 Frame and 1 Pack of Potatoes illustrates “The First Festival Created by the Community” of Bangladesh in Maseok in 1998. 500 men prepared the festival with only 100,000 won, and mixrice interpreted the pastimes of their festival, laughing and crying while playing a game called “one minute”, and refashioned it into a sort of fairytale. This fairytale re-illuminates how tiny daily items, like a pack of cotton swabs or paper boats, can become precious treasures for certain communities in a world of overabundance. It also challenges us to reconsider the meaning of a good life. This story emerged from one immigrant “community” and was redirected to confront “us”. Moreover, the course of this story is expected to continue to flow into somewhere in the future.
