Dancing, Food and Costumes Highlight Western University's Annual Asian Week Celebration

Western University of Health Sciences’ Founders Park will become the home

of many cultures when students celebrate the annual Asian Week Tuesday

through Friday, February 20-23.

More than 100 students will be a part of the celebration, participating by

serving up food from different countries, performing in a dance, or

appearing in native costume during the Friday fashion show.

Asian Week is a popular event at the health professions university, held

every year since the late 1980s. Thirty-five percent of the school’s 1,500

students this year are of Asian or Pacific Islander descent. Most of the

students who participate in or perform at Asian Week are of Asian descent,

but not all – the idea is to include everyone in the celebration, said

this year’s event organizer, Lisa Ngo, a second-year student in Western

University’s College of Pharmacy and president of the university’s chapter

of Asian American Health Profession Student Association.

“”Asian Week is a way to educate the school on Asian cultures and to show

unity [among the different nationalities],”” the 24-year-old Claremont

resident said. “”Everyone participates, even if it’s just to come out to

eat or watch the dancing. Everyone at school is very receptive.””

over

All events during Asian Week take place between noon and 1 p.m.

The celebration begins on Tuesday, February 20, with food from the

Philippines served (cost is $4), martial arts moves and a Vietnamese

Chopstick Dance demonstrated by students, as well as a professional troupe

of dancers performing a Dragon Dance. The university’s student chapter of

the American Pharmaceutical Association will sell Thai Iced Tea for $1.50.

Activities for Thursday, February 22 (events for Wednesday, February 21,

were still being worked out at presstime), include performances by members

of the South Asian Student Association of traditional dances from India.

Indian food will be sold for $4.

The Asian Week Fashion Show takes place on Friday, February 23, on the

staircase in the Health Professions Center, with students showcasing

native dress from China, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia, Burma, the Philippines,

India, Thailand and Korea. Vietnamese sandwiches and eggrolls will be

sold, as well (cost will probably be $4).

Raffle tickets will be sold for $2 each, with proceeds going to benefit

Western University’s Asian American Scholarship Fund. Prizes include

Dodger season tickets (includes parking); Pacific Asia Museum passes;

Richard Nixon Library passes; and others. The grand prize is a 27-inch

color television with remote. The drawing will be held at the 18th Annual

Asian American Scholarship Dinner March 10. Winners need not be present.