 "Photo: Junghee Lee")
Over 500 University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa students with different cultural backgrounds gathered in the Campus Center Ballroom last Friday to celebrate International Night 2010. Japan, China, the Philippines, USA and other countries were represented through performances, booths and games.
This event was an “appetizer course,” said Amanda Chin, co-chair for International Night. “Everyone gets to have a taste of each culture without actually going to that country.”
The theme of the 11th annual International Night 2010 was 808 United: Calling Together All Nations.
“The theme was chosen because we wanted to represent all the different countries that are gathered under the 808 area code,” Chin said.
Ten performances that were shown from nine countries introduced the countries’ traditional dances. Among them were the Indonesian Likok Pulo (waves of the sea), Thai ka bum kri lard sum reang (women bird dance) and the Philippine tinikling (birds walking between branches).
“Tinikling is a traditional Philippine folk dance with 3/4 beats,” said Joshua Javier, tinikling performer and UH Mānoa freshman. “We mixed modern hip-hop with tinikling because we want to connect with people in our generation too.”
Tinikling came from the story of farmers catching the tinikling birds with a bamboo stick out of their rice paddies. But the birds never got caught and the graceful movement of the birds coming out of the bamboo stick inspired the dance.
During two intermissions throughout the performances, students busily filled out their “passport” with stamps to receive a prize at the end of the event. Upon entering the event, each student was given a passport with the different cultural booths. When the students visited a booth and participated in an activity, they received a stamp. Once the students received all the stamps, they could turn in their passport to win a prize. The purpose of this activity was for students to learn about all the countries represented at the event, according to Chin.
Each cultural booth displayed activities that represent the country, such as the dumpling-making experience in the Chinese booth.
This three-hour event was presented by the UH International Student Association (ISA).
“Most international students don’t know the resources here and they feel lost,” said ISA adviser June Naughton. “We started this event so that international students could have an opportunity to share their culture with UH students.”
However, some international students were disappointed.
“I came to see the different cultural performances,” said Ji Yoo Lee, an exchange student from Korea. “But, I was disappointed that there wasn’t any representative from Korea to share our culture.”
Chin said that the turnout for the event was good this year.
“I’m glad more students are attending our event because there is not a lot of opportunities like this to learn about other cultures and countries in one place,” she said.
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