After a year-long hiatus, the Townsend Harris High School Chinese Student Association (CSA) revived its annual Asian Fest event. This year’s event featured a variety of sponsored snacks and drinks from Yami, KungFuTea, and MoshiDrinks, which were free for students and teachers to enjoy.
Asian Fest offered an opportunity to celebrate some of the diverse cultures at THHS. Food booths by various clubs and FON (Festival of Nations) groups were set up in the cafeteria, featuring a variety of Asian cultural dishes such as tanghulu, egg rolls, dumplings, fried rice, and noodles. Additionally, there were several activity booths from clubs such as the THHS art club as well as performances held in the auditorium.
These sponsorships were obtained by members of the CSA board. “Sponsorships are actually very common when looking at the college club scene. I was inspired [to contact potential sponsors] by my friends over at various college CSA branches,” said CSA Co-President and senior Ashley Liao. “Having sponsorships also proves that there are many adults and communities that care about the Asian community and are willing to support us.”
When discussing the sponsorship process, Ashley said the CSA board reached out to companies that “aligned with the purpose of Asian Fest, [which was] to celebrate Asian culture.” However, recognizing that companies had no obligation to support school clubs like CSA, they received only a “handful” of responses. It was “more than enough,” said Ashley.
To prepare for the event, CSA board members advertised Asian Fest on various social media platforms. “I think this year, we were able to advocate and bring awareness to the event more,” said CSA public relations board member and senior Li Li. “A lot more people showed up compared to previous Asian Fests.”
Despite the event’s success, the organizers faced several challenges in its planning and execution.
“One of the biggest challenges we faced would probably be getting everyone, [who wanted the sponsored merchandise] to sign up for accounts with the sponsors, specifically Yami, because the website was in Chinese,” said sophomore and CSA social associate Pekko Hau. “However, we were able to fix that relatively quickly as most of the board members knew Chinese, [stepping in as translators].”
Ashley noted another logistical challenge: “There were difficulties, such as the event suddenly being pushed forward one week [which made it difficult for] the clubs that were supposed to be joining us.” Looking ahead, she explained the need for more time and guidance from faculty [to] improve future events.
Art Club Co-President Katherine Torres spoke about the planning for setting up the art club booth at the event. “We wanted to represent different Asian cultures in an artistic way that showed what our club was about and what Asian Fest was about,” she said. This resulted in the board’s decision to have coloring pages with symbols significant to different Asian cultures, such as koi fish, lanterns, and dragons.
Performances in the auditorium included dances from FON groups like Bollywood, and a karaoke portion inviting participation from audience members. Those who took part in the karaoke were automatically entered into a raffle for a $50 Moshi gift card.
“My favorite part was definitely the karaoke, there were so many amazing performances and it ended up being a really good time,” said event co-announcer and junior Harnoor Parmar. “It was just a great way to sort of bring everyone together and have everyone interact with one another. Everyone sort of sang along and that’s one of my favorite memories.”
However, she said, “The crowd was very small at the event. I definitely think the food should be served after all the performances and events are done the next time Asian fest takes place because many people decided to go down and eat instead of coming up [to the auditorium] to watch the dances.”
Many students reflected on their experiences at the event. Sophomore Vivian Lin said, “My favorite part of Asian Fest [was] definitely the food. We were all able to taste each culture’s food while also celebrating Asian Fest as a community which was awesome.”
“There were so many different dishes to try. The [KungFuTea] popcorn was really good and the tea was refreshing. It was a nice treat during the event,” said senior Hailey Phuntsok. “Everyone seemed to have fun, and there was a good mix of food, performances, and activities.”
Sophomore Divya Mahabir said her favorite parts of the event were the coloring and food that exposed her to “new flavor combos [that] were unexpectedly good,” as well as to the things offered by the art club. “I got a chance to try sparkling white peach, white strawberry, and lychee drinks along with different flavors of popcorn,” she said. “They were all new and interesting combos.”
“Townsend’s vibrant community deserves celebration, as cultural diversity here is often taken for granted,” said Ashley. “We know that our friends and teachers come from different backgrounds, and […]instead of just acknowledging that, we should seize opportunities to explore and appreciate the cultures that surround us.”
