Beyond Traditional Costumes, Food Fairs and Dragon Dances
The pomp of APA Heritage Month celebrations is ever-present, but what about the substance?
At Penn State, April is called "Asian April."
For a week, the campus reverberates with the sounds of bamboo dances, booming taiko drums and a sundry of music from the students' native lands. Penn State, like most other colleges across the nation, celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month early.
For the occasion, APA organizations at Penn State host ethnic dance performances and a "Mr. and Ms. APA Penn State" pageant where contestants vie for the title by answering questions about their hobbies and strutting in costumes of their choice. Oftentimes, the usual mix of modern clothes is peppered with ancient influences. This year, one male contestant wore a loincloth and carried a spear to celebrate his Filipino heritage.
"What we try to do for Asian American Heritage Month is to emphasize Asian American heritage and history by hosting events every weekend in Asian April," said Yang Liang, an undergraduate industrial engineering major at Penn State.
Amidst all the pomp of APA Heritage celebrations on college campuses across the United States, the memory of the Virginia Tech tragedy looms like a caliginous cloud, and with it comes questions of the purpose of APA Heritage Month.
Does the occasion call for a parade of costumes and customs or a more serious look at APA issues and history?
APA Heritage is Canceled
Virginia Tech's APA Heritage month-long celebration called, "Asian American: Past, Presence, Future," was suddenly interrupted with gunfire and tragedy beyond anyone's comprehension.
Gunman Seung-Hui Cho's bloody rampage injected a stark contrast to planned cultural celebrations. Suddenly the skits, dances and songs seemed trivial.
The Virginia Tech Chinese American Society's (CAS) April 21 "Chinabration" was indefinitely postponed.
"For now there will always be another show, another dance, and another act," wrote Brian Ho, CAS president on their Web site.
Virginia Tech junior Owen Mahoney was planning to host a discussion on the history of Native Hawaiians on April 24, but a return to normalcy a week after the tragedy was just too soon.
"There is a need for fun events to get people's minds off of the tragedy," said Mahoney, a human nutrition major. She had to cancel the event because she was sure no one would show up.
"We're really sad for our loss, but there is a feeling of wanting to move on and incorporate the memories into our lives. We're not going to let something like this destroy us. There is a sense of inspiration here," Mahoney added.
APA Heritage celebrations were canceled on other campuses too. The University of Missouri called off an April 25 campus discussion about race amid concerns about possible backlash against the APA student community.
A handful of verbal threats had been recently reported at the Missouri campus. School officials asked the Asian American Association if they were concerned for their safety.
"That was when we really opened our eyes," said AA Association Member Annie Guo to the Associated Press.
Revising APA Heritage Celebrations
While other colleges were canceling APA Heritage events, Yale's Asian American Student Association (AASA) changed planned celebrations to include an open discussion on the Virginia Tech tragedy with students and faculty members.
At the discussion, fears and concerns were aired-out.
Other college campuses went on with business as usual. Colorado State University hosted a "cultural carnival" filled with performances, an anime presentation and a rice-eating contest. While Southern Illinois University Carbondale's slate of APA Heritage Month events included workshops on origami, bonsai and sushi.
Much like Black History and Women's History celebrations, APA Heritage Month is a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. But the similar events have a very different focus especially on college campuses where cultural events vastly outnumber discussion on APA issues and history.
It's a reality that the Korean American Students of Yale (KASY) are trying to work with.
"For APA Heritage Month, I feel that there is indeed a need to address APA history in a big and meaningful way, but I also understand why many organizations (including our own) oftentimes find cultural events to be easier to put on and more well-attended," said Andrew Yu, KASY president. "Especially on a college campus, where many students are very stingy with their time, we have found that for this reason and maybe others, that political or historical events are usually less well-attended or popular than big cultural shows."
At Yale, the APA organizations balance culture with history and politics.
This year, KASY hosted their cultural show - a skit based on the film "Meet the Parents," which showcased traditional food along with more modern aspects of Korean culture like hip-hop dance. But they also took part in an APA Heritage Month dinner where "Survivor: Cook Island" winner Yul Kwon spoke about race relations.
"Asian April" activities at Penn State are peppered with a political agenda. The APA Caucus hosted an art exhibition on American identity and a skit performance called "Uniting the Gap," which featured comedian Dat Phan.
The jokes centered on racism and stereotyping. It was a conscious decision to inject a little politics in a performance, said Liang, APA Caucus president. Once the laughter subsided, event organizers hoped audience members would come away with renewed ideas of APAs.
"Cultural performances, dragon and belly dancing are nice but that's not all there is to know about APA history," said Liang.
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