Cultural dances, traditional clothes, video clips and a skit were all part of Asia Night 2006.
The annual event organized by the Asian Students Association took place at the BTI Center in downtown Raleigh on Saturday night.
Some of the performers gave up their seats for members of the audience due to the high attendance rate.
The night’s theme, “Where in the World is Carmen Filipino?” began with a skit previewing the show and alluding to another popular television series tracking Carmen Sandiego.
ASA organizers said a lot of time and effort was put into the show by the members with planning that began in October.
“The purpose of Asia Night is to provide an opportunity for a social event not only for the NCSU campus, but for the entire Triangle to learn about Asian culture and appreciate it,” Chris Hwang, co-president of ASA and a junior in biomedical engineering, said.
In the show, three contestants chased Carmen Filipino across numerous Asian countries to retrieve the stolen relic and the audience experienced some culture from each of the countries visited.
The three contestants were “Billy,” representing UNC-Chapel Hill, “Gilligan,” representing Duke University and “Anh Twizzle,” representing N.C. State.
The host of the show, Jimmy Nguyen, also in charge of public relations for ASA, would deliver clues to the contestants from the chief, and the contestants guessed which country was being referred to before the audience could see the clue, which was a performance.
Throughout the show, the contestant from NCSU would get the answers to the clues, leaving the other contestants trailing.
A traditional fashion show of outfits coming from Laos, Korea, Philippines and India, among others, was presented for audience members. Native dances, such as the “Hmong” dance and “Chinese Lion” dance were also featured to showcase ethnic dance traditions.
“I liked how they had a lot of traditional acts, not just modern ones,” Sourygna Ku, a UNC sophomore in communication, said.
The performers faced some technical difficulties during the “Hmong” dance and yells of “You can do it! You can do it!” could be heard from the crowd.
After a few minutes, the dance began again and from the applause given after the dance, one would think the dance was well worth the wait.
“We had a rough start, but now, things are running smoothly,” Clifford Tse, co-president of ASA and a junior in chemistry and English, said. Tse said that every year, each school throws an Asia Night, and sometimes incorporates different acts from other schools.
“We definitely go support theirs and appreciate their support. Asia Night brings not only NCSU [students], but different Asian-American communities together from different schools,” he said.
Sarah Kim, a sophomore in biochemistry, said the purpose of Asia Night is “to spread Asian awareness not only on-campus, but in other schools, and to break the Asian stereotype.”
Organizers thanked their sponsors and said a portion of their profits would go to the Phillip Hayden Foundation, a foundation that assists orphan children in China.
This decision was made after Tse returned from Beijing and said he was moved by the children.
Other acts included the Pulsar Trio, a mixture of Western and Asian sounds, the Indian Holi Dance, a cultural hip-hop track by InSite, Fusion, a culture dance “fused” with hip-hop dance — and the headlining act, Passion, the 19-year-old musician from San Francisco.
Mitali Patel, a participant in the fashion show and a junior in biochemistry and microbiology, said, “It was a good show. They incorporated a lot of different countries and ethnicities. It improved a lot from last year.”
The organizers said they spent countless hours preparing for this event and contacting people in hopes of making it a success and enjoyable for the audience.
“I thought the show was really fun. It was nice to see the different diversity,” Iltifat Husain, a senior in business finance, said. “It wasn’t what most people think Asian is.”
