Asian American celebration sees higher turnout

Organizers report the best turnout ever for the six-year-old Asian Pacific American Heritage Week, which ended Saturday. The sixth annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Week, which ended last Saturday, had an increased turnout this year, but organizers are still focused on their goal of making the event better next year. "Every year, it is our goal to reach out to the entire Penn community," said College senior Edward Chang, the vice chairperson for political affairs for the Asian Pacific Student Coalition. The group has used better advertising and more interesting events to increase attendance -- both among Asian Americans and the rest of the Penn community -- since the event was first started, he said. For example, this year's candlelight vigil to remember Asian American victims of hate crimes drew more than 80 people, the largest turnout since the event was started during the first Asian Pacific American Heritage Week. The annual minority bone marrow drive also drew record numbers. Organizer said that 106 people signed up to become bone barrow donors, 35 more than last year. This year's keynote address was not really an address at all -- it was a performance by the Los Angeles-based group "Here and Now." The group mixed comedy, storytelling and interactive games to touch on issues like race relations and the Asian American experience in the United States. "I think that the address by 'Here and Now' was probably the most important event of Heritage Week," said College senior Bonnie Chong, who is also the vice chairperson for Heritage Week for the coalition. Friday's Extravaganza on College Green and in front of the Veranda, the former Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity house at 3615 Locust Walk, also drew a large crowd. Tables were set up on College Green by each of the 14 groups represented by the Asian Pacific Student Coalition as well as the Asian American Studies Program. Some groups had literature, while others had food from their region for sale. At the same time, groups like Pennaach, a South Asian dance troupe, performed outside of the Veranda. The groups danced and sang songs indigenous to their countries. Spectators ranged from Asian Americans who knew that the event was going on to random passersby who stopped because the performances looked interesting. "From what I've seen, I loved it. I've always been into culture, and I like to watch different styles of dancing," Wharton sophomore Tanjanika Brown said. But while a large number of people attended the events, several complained about the lack of diversity in the crowd. "I think this is a good idea, but I'm a little disappointed that there are mainly Asian people here," said Ozel Bilge, a graduate student in the School of Arts and Sciences. "But the food is good." "I don't think that they advertised very much for it," she added. "I would have stopped by earlier if I knew what was going on." Event organizers conceded the difficulty of catching the attention of busy students. "It's really hard to advertise a whole week's worth of events to the Penn community and get them to remember them," Chong said. "But I think that our advertising team did a good job of it." The Extravaganza occurred at the same time as the Greater Philadelphia Youth Community Service Project, which brought about 80 children from schools across the Philadelphia area to the Heritage Week. Friday night, the annual fashion show -- this year entitled 'Vis-aVis' -- featured big-name designers like Vera Wang and former Penn student Sandy Dalal. The name "symbolizes the strength held by many Asian Americans to acknowledge that their identities are not solely shaped by their Asian heritages, but also by their western ones," said the event coordinators' mission statement. More than 400 people attended the show, which was held in the Christian Association building on Locust Walk -- an increase of 280 people over last year's show. The audience was also more diverse than last year's. Even though most of the models were Asian Americans modeling garb designed by Asian and Pacific American designers, the audience was filled with students from many backgrounds. To close out the week, a charity gala was held Saturday at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza Hotel in Center City. The dinner included a raffle, offering items ranging from gift certificates to cooking lessons to Broadway tickets. The event raised more than $1,500 for AIDS Services in the Asian Community. ASIAC provides assistance to Asians in the greater-Philadelphia area with the AIDS virus, according to the organizers. Throughout the week, Resnet also showed movies with an Asian American theme or by Asian American directors. Good Morning, Vietnam, Gandhi, Enter the Dragon and Face/Off were just a few that were shown. Overall, the organizers said they were encouraged by the continuing trend of improvements in the quality of the events and the attendance. However, the organizers said that due to the size of Penn's student body, it was impossible to attract most students to the events. "When you're talking about a success -- especially at Penn since it's so big -- then you're being unrealistic," Chong said. "But if you're talking about a success compared to how we've done in the past, then it was a success."

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