Asian Festival Week Events:

Tuesday: Karaoke night from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Student Center Lounge.

Wednesday: Cultural arts display from 1 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Student Center Lounge.

Thursday: Movie night “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Interested people can call (817) 257-7855 to reserve tickets.

Saturday: Asian festival banquet from 7 to 10 p.m. in the Student Center

Ballroom. Ticket prices: $9 for adults, $7 for students and $4 for children. Tickets are being sold in front of The Main.

ASA to host Asian Festival

Skiff Staff

The Asian Student Association and the Office of Intercultural Education and Services will host the Asian Festival this week.

Alexis Olajay, a sophomore finance major and president of ASA, said he hopes to promote the Asian culture and heritage to the rest of the TCU student body and to the community outside of TCU.

“In the past few weeks, TCU’s ISA and (the Students for Asian-Indian Cultural Awareness) have hosted their own banquets and festivals, so by hosting our own festival right after them, we feel like it is further promoting TCU’s current diversity,” Olajay said. “It also helps that all these events follow each other so as to make the cultural diversity we have more and more evident to the rest of the students.”

Darron Turner, assistant dean and director of intercultural education and services, said the festival should be interesting for students who want to understand more about Asian culture.

“The festival will expose students who are of a different (culture than) the Asian culture and let them experience the art, clothing and food of the Asian community,” Turner said. “These events will give them a glimpse of what their (culture) consists of.”

Although this is the 4th Annual Asian Festival, this is the first time the organization will be hosting a banquet. In the past years, the organization has done programs only for TCU during the week. This year the organization is inviting not only TCU, but also the community.

Olajay said ASA is for anyone that is interested in learning more about Asian cultures through friendships and associations with the different members.

“Since 1992, ASA has helped students with their academics and general college life through the older members’ experiences,” Olajay said. “ASA has also helped them maintain their Asian heritage while assimilating into the TCU community.”

Cathy Nullan, ASA historian and a junior computer information science and e-business major, said participating in the festival will allow her as well as others to better understand their heritage since a lot of those participating are born and raised in America. The festival will even include participants from other schools, she said.

“I am doing the fashion show with (the University of Texas at Arlington), and we are also performing a cultural and modern dance,” Nullan said. “In the past three weeks of rehearsal for the banquet, practicing the dances and wearing the clothes of the Asian culture has helped me understand my heritage.”

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