Much of Kota Ezawa’s work has been about interpretation and modes of translation. His contribution to THE THING was no exception. His issue consisted of a custom THING box stamped in Cyrillic (Russian), a letter from the editors translated into Mandarin, and a simple white cotton baseball cap with Arabic text embroidered onto the front. Subscribers were only given a very small clue as to what the translation might be (a URL in English, buried in the letter’s Mandarin text). The result for many was a search for meaning through interacting with a text that had symbolic weight, but little relevance in daily life (unless they spoke the languages). Many subscribers took the letter to their local Chinese restaurant and asked for help, or wore the hat around for days or weeks until someone told them what it meant.