Woven into the fabric of memory, nostalgia is the simultaneous sweetness and the bitterness of wanting to return to another place or time. It is a longing for a home that no longer exists or has never existed. Nostalgia is a sentiment of loss and displacement, but also a romance with one's own fantasy.

NEOstalgia is a movement that comes from nostalgia but wants to propose a new one. It deals with the inability of homecoming and tries to activate a new way of homecoming. The movement aims to find new homes for the home-missing.


Homecoming Object 1: Fortune Cookie
      made in U.S.A by Asian American
      labeled as Chinese Snack
      longs for a home of whom are displaced (diaspora) and another home of whom fantasise the displacement (exotism)

Homecoming Object 2: Chinese Checker
      originated in Germany
      name given by an American Company
      labeled as Chinese game
      longs for a home of whom fantasise the displacement (exotism)

Once I ordered Chocomel aside my meal at Eazie, the notorious asian fast food restaurant around the corner. A fortune cookie was served aside the cup of Chocomel. This snack perfectly fit in as a snack to a sweet hot dutch drink, also as an auratic snack that explains the attempt of some cultural fantasy: “Right, you are eating supposably Chinese, and we serve you what supposably are Chinese.”
      I do not remember having any through my life in China. Nevertheless, at that time I was so convinced that I received a Chinese snack, while looking at the Chinese characters and some dragon illustration on the golden-looking package.
      This snack is trying to please everyone — it has the fortune told in English, Dutch, French and Spanish on the little paper. British, American, Dutch, French and Spanish and people all around the world gets their lucky freebee, indulging themselves in the golden crispy oriental dream.
      There is someone left out whom Fortune Cookies forgot to please — the Chinese. The Chinese person is left there confused: he doesn’t even know about the most “Chinese” thing. He does not read a single word from inside, either.
      When I needed to introduce a game in a class, I chose a chess game that I used to play a lot with my grandma. It is called Hop Chess in Chinese. I had to google the English name for it. It turned out as a surprise — it has the name “Chinese checkers” in English. I did not know about it at all. Everyone seemed convinced in my class. “You were playing it in China. It originates in China. Yes.”
      Yes, that is why we would never call it Chinese checkers. It is like we calling pasta “Italian noodle” and baguette “French stick”. But the Italian or French would never do so.
      But I was very confused that I had never heard about its Chinese origin.
      The fortune cookie and the Chinese checker want to come home. Me too. I want to come home with them.

The movement is directed by two organisations:
WFFF (World Fusion Food Foundry) and
TGGG (Total Guide to Geography Gameplay).

WFFF proposes and performs a new way of serving Fortune Cookie — Unfolded Truth. TGGG proposes a new design of Chinese Checker — Check-in Checker.