Bunkagame — September 2, 2026

Question 1

This 2018 ballad by Scottish singer Lewis Capaldi reached number 4 on Singapore's RIAS chart and number 11 on Romania's Airplay 100. It also hit number 1 in Malaysia and became one of the biggest hits of the late 2010s. Which song is it?

Accepted Answer

'Someone You Loved' by Lewis Capaldi charted around the world after its 2018 release, including number 4 in Singapore, number 11 in Romania, and number 1 in Malaysia. It topped charts across Europe and North America.

Question 2

This 2012 K-pop song by BigBang reached number 3 on South Korea's Gaon chart and number 8 on the Japan Hot 100. It won Best Dance Video at the MTV Video Music Awards Japan in 2013. Which song is it?

Accepted Answer

'Fantastic Baby' by BigBang was released in 2012 and became one of the most iconic K-pop songs of the 2010s. It charted at number 3 on South Korea's Gaon and number 8 on the Japan Hot 100, and won Best Dance Video at MTV VMAs Japan in 2013.

Question 3

In 2025, the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts opened 'Landscapes of Time', honouring this Japanese American sculptor. Decades earlier he studied brush painting for six months in Beijing with Qi Baishi before sailing on to Japan. Which artist is it?

Accepted Answer

Isamu Noguchi, the Japanese American sculptor and landscape designer, studied with Qi Baishi in Beijing before continuing to Japan. His work spanning stone, gardens and public art was celebrated in 'Landscapes of Time' at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown in 2025.

Question 4

San Leandro, California is home to a bottling plant for this famous American soft drink. Piqua, Ohio had a bottling company for the same brand, owned by the Lange family and located on the downtown square. Which beverage is it?

Accepted Answer

Coca-Cola bottling operations spread across countless American cities in the twentieth century. San Leandro, California still hosts a Coca-Cola plant, and downtown Piqua, Ohio was once home to the Lange-family Piqua Coca-Cola Bottling Company.

Question 5

Algeria and Nigeria have both had directors take the top best-film prize at this biennial African film festival held in Burkina Faso's capital, joining winners from Cameroon, Morocco, Mali, Ivory Coast and Ghana. Which African film festival is being described?

Accepted Answer

FESPACO (the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou) has been held in Burkina Faso's capital every two years since 1969. It is Africa's oldest and largest film festival, celebrating African and diaspora cinema.

Question 6

This Guadeloupean writer became professor of French and Francophone literature at Columbia University in New York City in 1995. Her breakout 1984 novel, named for the historic city of Ségou in Mali, brought the 19th-century Bambara Empire to a global audience. Which writer is it?

Accepted Answer

Maryse Condé, born in Guadeloupe in 1934, wrote 'Ségou' about the Bambara Empire of Mali and later taught French and Francophone literature at Columbia University in New York City. She won the alternative Nobel Prize in Literature in 2018.

Question 7

Harare Sports Club Ground in Harare regularly hosts One Day International cricket matches, and the 37,000-seat Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in this western Indian city has hosted T20s, ODIs and a Test match. Which Indian cricket city is being described?

Accepted Answer

Pune, in the state of Maharashtra, is the home ground of the Pune Warriors India and hosts international cricket at the Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Gahunje. The venue has staged World Cup and IPL fixtures alongside bilateral ODIs and Test cricket.

Question 8

Alongside boxing, tennis, and judo, Montenegro's sports scene includes this East Asian striking discipline, and in Jordan it appears alongside boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai and ju-jitsu among the country's popular combat sports. Which martial art is being described?

Accepted Answer

Karate developed on the Ryukyu Islands (now Okinawa, Japan) as an unarmed self-defence tradition, later spreading to mainland Japan in the 1920s. It is now practiced globally and made its Olympic debut at the 2020 Tokyo Games.

Question 9

Which body of Old Irish tales was set in Ulster and reaches as far south as Mornington, County Meath, according to scholar Kenneth H. Jackson, preserving authentic Celtic myths from the pre-Christian Iron Age centred on the hero Cú Chulainn and his charioteer Láeg?

Accepted Answer

The Ulster Cycle is one of the four great cycles of Old Irish literature, alongside the Mythological, Fenian, and Kings' Cycles. Its centrepiece, the Táin Bó Cúailnge (Cattle Raid of Cooley), follows the hero Cú Chulainn defending Ulster from an invasion led by Queen Medb of Connacht.

Question 10

This 18th-century Nordic trading firm was granted rights to all commerce east of the Cape of Good Hope as far as Japan. France and the Netherlands considered it a competitor and refused to help. Which company is it?

Accepted Answer

The Swedish East India Company, founded in 1731 in Gothenburg, held exclusive rights to Swedish trade east of the Cape of Good Hope as far as Japan. Its main trade partner was actually China, but France and the Netherlands treated the venture as unwelcome competition.