Clubs unite to celebrate culture month

By Sana Yaklur     10/24/12 7:00pm

 

October is Asian American Heritage and Culture Month at Rice, and Asian-American culture clubs all over campus are hosting events to celebrate. 

The month's events included a Dandiya Study Break, Garba Dance Celebration, calligraphy workshop, Make Your Own Banh Mi and leadership workshops with speakers such as J.D. Hokoyama, President & CEO of the Leadership Education for Asian Pacifics, Inc., according to Chinese Student Association co-president Karen Lin and South Asian Society co-presidents Onkur Sen and Amol Utrankar. 

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CSA co-president Jessica Ma said that AAHCM was necessary to remind Asian-American students about not only their culture, but also their identities. 

"It is my hope that [AAHCM] can start a much-needed conversation on campus not just about students' cultural heritage, but also their identity as Asian-Americans and the struggles of the larger APIA [Asian-Pacific Islander American] community that they belong to," Ma, a Wiess College junior, said. "Too much of the Asian American community at Rice remains unaware of their own history [...] and buy into the model minority myth. Too many students don't realize that [...] the 'bamboo ceiling' is a very real issue for students with dreams and high aspirations."

Sen said that AAHCM is important because it helps culture clubs promote awareness around the diversity of perspectives on campus. 

"Our goal is to expose people to different cultures and perspectives, not to just allow people of the same culture to form their own cliques," he said. 

The idea for AAHCM originated from CSA, Lin, a Baker College senior, said. 

"When I became one of the presidents of CSA, I felt a strong conviction to bring CSA beyond purely social interaction that revolved around food," Ma said. "AAHCM was an idea that formed then, as a way to really expand the scope of CSA events."

Since CSA provided financial backing for this month, they started the planning toward the beginning of the school year, Lin said. Ma said that she began planning for this month over the summer. Ma said CSA financed most of the main events with money raised through fundraising and the Student Activities' President's Programming grant. 

"After I came up with a complete picture of what kind of program I thought best fit Rice, I proposed the idea to the other club presidents over email," Ma said. "All of them were very open to the idea, so when we got back to school, we met around five times to iron things out."

According to Utrankar, the events were discussed during a series of meetings in mid-September with other Asian-American cultural clubs. 

Brown College freshman Josh Lipschultz said he had not yet attended any events, but because of flyers he had seen, intended to head to a few, especially those involving food. 

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