Sunday, February 27, 2011
The Asian-American Student Union celebrated its 14th annual “Taste of Asia” with the grand finale variety show Saturday night in the Kansas Union. The show was the closing ceremony to a week full of events that aimed at breaking the stereotypical Asian image at the University of Kansas.
David Kim a sophomore from Wichita performs the Tae Yang Dance. Kim is part of the Lamda Phi Epsilon fraternity at KU.
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Taste of Asia
Asian American Student Union hosted Taste of Asia 2011
For the past week, AASU promoted Asian awareness at the University by hosting six different events, including an Asian food buffet and Asian game night. The theme of the week “Ascension: Once Forgotten, Now Ascending” addressed serious issues facing the Asian community today.
“The Asian community is a forgotten minority, but recently there has been a rebirth of interest in the Asian, Asian-American way of life,” Anthony Nguyen, a senior from Wichita and president of AASU, said. “This week has been about still maintaining part of the cultures we grew up in while moving forward.”
The variety show was filled with light-hearted jokes and laughter despite the overall serious tone of the week. The show included everything from the KU Vietnamese Student Association lion dance team to the AASU hip hop dance team. Many performers wore traditional outfits of their own Asian heritage, while others sang in their native language.
Former KU student Matt Troung said he came back to participate in this year’s variety show as a dancer.
“The show is great because we have a little bit of every Asian culture in it, such as Laos, Korean, Cambodian, Tai, Indonesian and others,” Troung said.
The hosts of the show, Anthony and Lisa Nguyen, a senior from Wichita, kept the educational atmosphere upbeat by dancing to Kesha and poking fun at so called “easy” traditional dances such as the Cambodian coconut dance. The energetic crowd cheered loudly for performer Himal Sherchan, a sophomore from Lawrence, as he sang an acoustic version of “Yellow” by Coldplay, and his own material.
Each performer paid tribute to a different Asian ethnic group at the University. The AASU formed in 1991 to support interaction among different Asian ethnic groups, and to promote Asian awareness and education at the University. Anthony said that was still one of the main goals of the group.
“The KU campus is so segregated and this event helps educate the campus so that we can learn from each other,” Anthony said.
— Edited by Samantha Collins
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