The Lane County Fairgrounds was transformed Saturday and Sunday to celebrate the cultural heritage of Asian and Asian-American groups as part of the 19th-annual Oregon Asian Celebration.
Emcee Tony Lum, who had previously co-chaired the event, stressed the importance of the celebration.
“Diversity is difficult,” he said. “Our goal is not only to entertain people but to … enlighten people.”
The Asian Celebration opened Saturday morning with Taiko drumming and was followed by the traditional Chinese lion dance, which had the packed house laughing.
A large part of the building was transformed into an Asian marketplace with more than 80 booths featuring crafts from places including Nepal and India, as well as local crafts. The event also included cooking demonstrations on how to make a number of dishes including Hawaiian-style sushi and Indian curry.
The food court contained a variety of culinary dishes ranging from Indian vegetable-stuffed pastries, spam musubi (rice and spam wrapped in seaweed), pancit (a Filipino noodle dish) and a number of Japanese confections.
Nozomi Tanaka, a second-year East Asian Language and Literature graduate student, said she enjoyed the cooking demonstrations.
“It’s easy to learn how to make the dish, because you can see it done step-by-step,” she said. “I would do it on my own even if I didn’t like cooking.”
Participants eating in the dining area were able to watch martial arts performances.
Elisabeth E. Goldenberg, an instructor at the Orient Taekwondo College, said she enjoyed the event. “We get to share other forms of martial arts with so many people,” she said.
University junior and Asian Pacific American Student Union co-Director Kit Myers has been manning the APASU booth at the Asian Celebration for three years.
“This year’s turnout is good because there are more people here during lunch hour than in previous years,” he said.
Senior Sudip Shakya has been attending the Asian Celebration for 14 years. He said he would like to see some change in the event because it has remained the same for a while.
“I also wish the advertisers would reach out to more people, so that more people will know about this event because there aren’t many University students here this year,” he said.
Sunday’s programs featured cultural performances from the Pacific Rim including a virtual tour of the Pacific islands. The program opened with a Maori war dance, which was followed by a Poi Ball fire dance, during which dancers swung fiery balls above their heads while dancing.
The ambient sounds of the Gamelan Sari Pandhawa, an Indonesian percussion ensemble, filled the atrium courtyard, where the Oregon Phillipine American Chamber of Commerce sponsored the East-West silent auction. The atrium also featured a water color art show in addition to traditional Asian crafts such as an Orchid display and Oshie, a form of Japanese silk art work.
For some University students, a visit to the Asian Celebration was somewhat akin to a visit home. The diversity of the event reminded freshman Ka’ohu Ah Yo of his native Hawaii.
“Coming from Hawaii, this makes me feel at home,” he said.