Asians Take Over Campus

They ran Thursday’s colloquy. They dominated vespers on Friday. And they showed up prominently in the Sabbath church service. There was obviously something afoot, and it soon became obvious to all: it was Asian-American cultural emphasis week.

This year, PUC has three special cultural emphasis weeks scheduled – one for Asian-Americans (Nov. 11-13), one for African-Americans (Jan. 27-29), and one for Hispanic-Americans (May 5-7). This quarter’s cultural emphasis events were a time for the many Asian-Americans on campus to be represented and have a strong, public voice.

In a hip, energetic, and heartfelt colloquy, Kevin Camato and Diane Pulido hosted the game-show-style program, complete with interviews (both live and by video), book-reading by a very young Asian-American, a beautiful hula performance, and plenty of music. The program kept people awake and laughing, but also touched on some serious and very relevant aspects of culture and history.

Friday vespers presented a more spiritual and personal side of Asian-American life as a number of students shared their own experiences at PUC and their struggles dealing with the conflict between being “Asian” and being “American.”

Finally, on Sabbath Richard Choi, assistant professor of New Testament at Andrews University, spoke on “The Mystery of the Orient and the Magic of the West.” The program included many other Asian-American touches as well, such as prayers and scriptures in a variety of Asian languages.