ASI celebrates diversity:
K-pop night
By AJ Yabut
By AJ Yabut
K-pop night photo booth with a Naeyon standee from hit girl group "TWICE" (Photo by: AJ Yabut @ajyabbie on instagram)
Cal State Fullerton is known to be Being known as a HSI (Hispanic-Serving Institution) and AANAPISI (Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution). It is home to 40,386 students that stem from diverse backgrounds. More than half identifying as Latinx followed by Asian, White, Multi-Race, African American, Pacific Islander, Native American and unknown. Because of CSUFs diversity, some ethnicities can be often overlooked. However, there are many efforts being made by Associated Students Inc. that makes representation possible. One of them is to celebrate Asian culture by hosting a K-pop (Korean Pop) Night!
(Photo by: AJ Yabut @ajyabbie on instagram)
(Photo by: AJ Yabut @ajyabbie on instagram)
(Photo by: AJ Yabut @ajyabbie on instagram)
Boba or Bubble Tea is a tea based drink that originated from Taiwan in the early 1980s and have made its way through most of East and South East Asian quickly. Boba tea is a staple beverage that most Asian kids grew up drinking and it is very comforting and reminiscent seeing my culture be celebrated through a straw. ASI went the extra mile and supported BopoMofo Cafe which is a small business owned by Chinese sibling duo - Phil and Eric Wang who provided Boba for the event.
Photocards are essential in K-pop. You often get a photocard upon every album you purchase. The catch is, you never know which group member you’re going to get. Which leads fan in trading photocards! And since Photocards are a prized possession, people would invest in photocard holders to preserve their prized possession! But regardless of if you had a photocard with you on hand because they made sure not to leave anyone out by providing a photocard of everyone’s favorie elephant: Tuffy the titan!
What is a K-pop event without having any K-pop performers? ASI might not have the budget to bring it Seoul’s best artist but they reached out to student run K-pop choreography dance club @csuf_seoul.ful who got to perform BTS’s iconic choreography of fake love
Students focused on DIY-ing their photocard holder (Photo by: AJ Yabut @ajyabbie on instagram)
After the event we were able to interview Kayla Lam who is the ASI Student Programer in charge of K-pop Night with ASI. After the success of K-pop Night we ponder the question “Will ASI do another K-pop night in the future?” but Lam’s response was shocking. She says “I’m not sure if we would do another K-pop night in the future… We are focused on broadening our horizons and diversifying our events. However, K-pop night is something that we will keep in mind” It’s safe to say that Cal State Fullerton is doing an amazing job in promoting cultural diversity beyond the four walls of the classroom.