“Once, there was a hill, and on that hill is a temple, and inside the temple, there is a monk that was dreaming about ‘once there was a hill, and on that hill is a temple, and inside the temple, there is a monk that was dreaming about, and so on and so on.”

-Ivan Tsang, international student at the University of Southern California.

Tsang first heard the absurdist story/joke hybrid in the halls of his elementary school in Hong Kong. Tsang performed this piece in a classroom at the University of Southern California.

I found this piece interesting because it exemplifies the cross-cultural similarities in elementary school lore. This is Tsang’s version of the never ending joke, with it’s own cultural context, that students in the United States have as well. There’s a certain charm to a joke without a punchline…or an end.