Free food, dancing, films and presentations were all part of the fun this past week as the Asian Students In Action Club hosted the first Asian Appreciation Week on campus.

“We wanted to do something bigger than what we normally do,” Michael Vang, sophomore mechanical engineering major and ASIA Club president, said. “We wanted to introduce the Asian cultures available on campus.”

Michael said that ASIA Club reached out to campus organizations such as the Confucius Institute, who hosted Monday night’s cooking class, the Hmong Club and the Japanese Aikido Club to collaborate on the week.

“We weren’t entirely sure how all of it was going to be put together but we decided to just roll with it,” Michael said.

On April 21, the Hmong Club hosted speaker Bee Lo, a naturopathic doctor and lecturer at the University Wisconsin-La Crosse. Lo showed a film and spoke on Hmong origins and culture to a large student turnout.

“A lot of the Hmong students here on campus learned a lot about their own culture and the different stories that exist within that culture,” Angela Yang, junior business administration major said. “One of the quotes I really liked was ‘if you don’t know your history, there is no future.’”

Yang is involved in leadership roles in the Hmong Club and ASIA Club.

An aikido demonstration and showing of the film “Shanghai Calling” took place on April 22 and on April 23 Narisha Reddy, sophomore computer science and geography major, gave a presentation on Fijian and Indian culture. Reddy was born in Fiji and moved to Wisconsin when she was 6 years old. She presented on topics such as cultural ettiquite, religion, sports and language. After the presentation, there was Bollywood dancing and henna tattooing.

The end of the week featured a showcase of Hmong and Bollywood dancing and a student panel in which audience members could ask the panel questions.

“A lot of the questions revolved around diversity and how our ethnicities play into our everyday lives. Specifically on how coming to UW-Platteville, as a predominantly white community, affects us. They asked us a lot about that,” Michael said.

The week’s final event, Taste of Asia, is hosted every year by the ASIA Club. It features homemade food such as eggrolls and fried rice. The audience was asked trivia questions and invited to play games.

Phanat Yang, sophomore animal science major and ASIA Club executive board member, staffed the welcome table keeping track of how many people attended. She said that this year’s turnout was much higher than in previous years.

“We’ve had over 100 people come in already, consisting of students from the campus and people from the community,” Tong Vang, sophomore undecided major and current activities director said.

Tong said that in the past, the event attracted approximately 50 to 75 guests.

On April 25, ASIA Club members were already looking forward to next year and hope to be able to again host both Asian Appreciation Week and Taste of Asia.