​Thematic Significance

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​Buddhism is a non-theistic religion that teaches us how to reach enlightenment, a state where all desires, hatred, and ignorance is purged. Although Buddhism emphasizes non-attachment from material objects, some of these objects serve as significant Buddhist symbols or reminders. In Chinese and Vietnamese Buddhist culture, jade is symbolized by purity, mindfulness, and peace. Wooden beaded bracelets are tactile tools for meditation, counting mantra, and are representative of time, impermanence, and humility. As Lotus flowers rise up from mud and dirt, they are significant to Buddhist culture as symbols of rebirth and enlightenment.

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Despite this, modern America has taken these symbols and turned them into home decor, mass producing a Buddhist statue or image of Siddhartha onto a T-shirt, tapestry, or mug, and market it as fashionable, trendy, or "Zen" to have when oftentimes consumers and distributors don't know what Zen means. Ironically, they use objects that symbolize this religion and represent its teachings for their own materialistic desires. ​

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Satire & Appropriation

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The board game uses language such as "Buddhist connoisseur" to refer to the players and aims to solely use physical artifacts from other mediums (without supporting distributors mass producing Buddhist products). Artifacts are images reprinted, second-hand jewelry, bingo tokens, and/or thrifted Buddhist statues. Design boards were made from an interior design magazine and will hopefully become thrifted or vintage dollhouses. It is heavily inspired by Monopoly and the satirical humor and appropriation of Dadaism art.

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Some of these inspirations come from A Victim Society (Remember Uncle August, the Unhappy Inventor) by George Grosz, Fountain, and L.H.O.O.Q. or La Joconde both by Marcel Duchamp. These pieces took preexisting objects or structure to create something satirical which would critique and defy the political, cultural, and social state of the world. 

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A darker inspiration comes from Brenda Romero's board game Train, designed in 2009. Players are tasked with loading what seems like a train with passengers and at the end of the game, they realize that they were loading passengers on the train towards concentration camps during the Holocaust. Similarly, Trending: Buddhism has players acting as the perpetrators.

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Karma Currency System​

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​Karma is a Sanskrit word that means "action" and represents the idea of

cause and effect.​ In Vietnamese, this word is "nợ". Karma shows up in past,

current, and future lives. Whether you perform bad deeds (accumulating

unwholesome karma from greed, hatred, etc.) or good deeds (accumulating

wholesome karma from selflessness, tranquil, etc.), at a certain time in your

life, this one or the next, you must repay that karma. 

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Then, it is ideal to use such a belief as arbitrary currency in this game

without distinguishing whether it is good or bad, as that is evidently

determined by the intentional actions of the player participating in the

game and their desire to win.

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A Big, Beautiful, House​

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One of the main goals for the player is to decorate their home in a beautiful way using karma tokens and the objects they buy. By decorating well and winning the votes, players would amass much more karma compared to selling and buying objects.

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This serves to further reinforce the idea of spiritual objects simply being viewed as desired commodities and decor in one's home.

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As of the most recent iteration, this house is a page from a magazine and furniture book. However, in future iterations. this will be in the form of a dollhouse.

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