The Life Cycle of the Balic Bian Box

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The sending of boxes by Filipinos is like a multi-billion dollar industry. More than 10 million Filipinos live overseas and the more that go overseas, the more boxes get sent back. For part of his research, Anthony worked for a Balic Bian shipping company in Los Angeles. He was most interested in what the box meant to people, how they interacted with it in their lives.

This time of year, right in the middle of the holiday season, there's a beloved, frenzied tradition playing out in Filipino households all around the world, with which reporter Gabrielle Berbey is intimately familiar. A Balikbayan box is a huge cardboard box (often weighing over 100 pounds) that Filipinos living all over the world send to family members who are still living in the Philippines. The word Balikbayan literally means homecoming in Tagalog.

Balikbayan Boxes