On Friday, Nov. 22, the Washburn International Club held the Celebration of Cultures in the Memorial Union Underground. There were students from Indonesia, India, Nepal, the Bahamas, Russia, China and more presenting and talking about their cultures through history, food, music, clothing and dance.
As people walked around the event, they could receive signatures from people from other countries in their native language, and they could have a list of different languages on the same paper.
Hui Liao, freshman education major, represented China at the event with other Chinese students. She and her friends wore traditional Chinese dresses called Qipaos. She led the Chinese group and was responsible for making most of the Chinese food for the event.
“I think this event is really good for the international students, we feel very welcome here and we feel encouraged to introduce our culture to people, and we can still learn some different cultures,” Liao said.
James Tanasyah, senior computer information sciences major, was representing Indonesia at the event and made a popular instant fry noodle called Indomie.
Sangyoub Park, sociology professor, represented the South Korean table. He brought some traditional snacks from his country.
“I have been participating in this event for a long time, over 10 years,” Park said. “This is a creative event and is a great opportunity for students to be exposed to other cultures.”
The event ended with people from India, Japan and Nepal dancing to traditional music from their countries and Yoda Kariya, junior computer information sciences major, sang a song in his first language, Japanese.
Edited by Stuti Khadka and Jeremy Ford
