Transformed Night Market attracts

By Ruby Gee     12/2/10 6:00pm

Red hand-painted lanterns and white fairy lights dotted the sky above the annual Rice Taiwanese Association Night Market, which was held at the Farnsworth Pavilion and the adjacent Brown Garden Nov. 20. More than 300 students participated in the Night Market, which required $5 for admission for the first time this year."We wanted to recreate the noisy, bustling, sensory-rich atmosphere of a real Taiwanese night market," Rice Taiwanese Association Co-President Allen Liao said. "We didn't want it to just be a take-food-and-leave kind of event, so we really changed it up from previous years to encourage people to stick around."

Changes from past RTA Night Markets include increased publicity efforts and a stronger emphasis on a carnival atmosphere.

For $5, students could get 10 tickets for food and games. Students could use their tickets to play at any of the booths: boba pong, karaoke, mini arcade basketball, skeeball, ring toss, balloon darts and a marble-chopsticks game. Game prizes varied, but ranged from Asian candy to $5 gift cards from businesses like Red Mango. According to Liao, a McMurtry College junior, the intention was for the tickets to be spent like money at stalls that would be representative of vendors at a real night market.

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Liao said that because they budgeted a lot more to make the event bigger and better than before, the admission charge was a way to help offset the costs as well as incorporate the spending aspect of a real night market.

"We had no idea whether charging for admission would deter people, but it was a really great turnout," Liao said.

Like previous years, a variety of ethnic foods were served at the event. RTA gave a subsidy of $100 to the seven other East Asian cultural organizations that provided food.

Martel College freshman Miri Shidate said that the food was good and authentic, but ran out within 30 minutes.

"Everyone was really excited to try different Asian cuisine," Lovett College freshman Megan Chang said. "The variation was cool because Rice students sometimes don't have this opportunity to try this food."

Sid Richardson College freshman Ryan Rightmer, a volunteer at the event, said that this was the first time he has ever checked out an event of this nature.

"I was impressed with the variety of the groups that participated in this event," Rightmer said. "I didn't know there were so many different organizations [on campus] for the same region of the world."

RTA had Low Keys, Rice's female a cappella group, and seven other student musicians playing in the event background to represent the street musicians usually found at the real night market. VSA president Matthew Ton-That, who performed in a duet as part of the series of opening musical acts, said that the crowd was very supportive.

"We performed before at the CSA Date Auction, so we were less nervous and more comfortable performing again at Night Market," Ton-That, a Duncan College senior, said. "The venue, games and great planning by RTA made this the best [Night Market] I've been to."

RTA budgeted more for publicity this year than it previously had. RTA's Night Market Planning Committee, Liao and other RTA officers spread the word by Facebook and listserv, as well as posters at all of the colleges and a banner at the entrance of Fondren Library.

Wiess College senior Sam Oke said that the Night Market was a low key and inexpensive event where students could just come and hang out.

"It's an event where students can celebrate their own culture," Oke said. "As Rice becomes more internationally oriented with increasing international student enrollment, I see events like [Night Market] growing in size and popularity.

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