Photo contributed by Shan Jiang ’21
Sky Dance members flow in traditional costumes to lyrical music at the Asian Student Alliance’s 20th VariAsians performance event and night.
BY GAURI KAUSHIK ’22
The brightly-colored flags of various different Asian countries, from India to Japan to China, covered the walls of Chapin Auditorium on Friday, Nov. 15 for Mount Holyoke’s Asian Student Association’s (ASA) 20th annual VariAsians. According to the event’s Facebook page, VariAsians is a cultural showcase meant to celebrate Asian heritage through talent and food.
The event included a dinner of a variety of Asian cuisines and a talent showcase with multiple acts, including a fashion show and some from Mount Holyoke dance groups. Jhumka, Raunak Bhangra and Rainbow Jelly danced, as well as a performance in traditional Indian style to “Shape of You” by Ed Sheeran. The event catered to around 170 guests, according to ASA senior co-chair Susan Jiang ’20, including some from outside of the College, who came to watch friends from the Five College area perform.
The ASA is tasked with representing the various cultures of the continent of Asia, which is something the board members keep in mind when putting together the event.
This year, the performers were chosen through video auditions, unlike in previous years, during which ASA would reserve a room for auditions. For performer Kelly Li ’23, video auditions were easier since she and her duet partner only had to send in a recording of a portion of their traditional Chinese dance.
“We try to represent a whole range of cultures, so if there are performances that are specific to one culture and there are a lot of them, then we’re like, okay, we can only choose a certain amount,” Jiang said. “In terms of priorities, we are a Mount Holyoke organization, we like to choose Mount Holyoke students and we try to get as many people to perform as possible.”
Li and her partner, for example, danced a piece by a well-known Chinese choreographer that they learned through watching online videos. Li describes the piece as both traditional and modern, and both dancers had their costumes for the event shipped from China.
“[It] showcase[s] just the diversity within pan-Asia, because [when] a lot of people ... think of Asia, you think of very stereotypical [ideas],” Rahael George ’21, junior co-chair of ASA, said. “Through the show you’re able to see the intricacies within each country and how it’s so diverse even though it’s all part of Asia.”
As an international student, Li noted that Mount Holyoke’s international community makes up an impressive percentage of the student body and showcases like these make them feel more at home. For her, aside from the opportunity to perform, the show was also an opportunity to learn more about different Asian cultures.
“It’s a really impressive thing to learn about different kinds of cultures,” Li said. “For me, this time, I know more about Indian and Hindu dance, it’s really different ... The whole thing made me think about how cultures can combine together and become a new thing that people can accept more.”
According to Jiang, the event has been in the works since the start of the semester. With many 2019 ASA seniors gone, Jiang and George, along with another Junior co-chair, had to plan the event.
“It went really well this year. I think there were things we were trying to consider when planning, and things we were trying to avoid,” Jiang said. “We did a good job with that this year, everything was on time.”
Last year, the food arrived late, causing the entire program to run overtime. George said they opened the doors at 6:15 p.m., when the event was supposed to begin at 6 p.m., causing a whole crowd of people to run in which made checking tickets extremely hard.
“It’s kind of like Black Friday, that giant of rush of people at the beginning,” George said.
This year, ASA implemented organized lines and yellow wristbands to make the process easier. Along with these changes, the fashion show, which had previously been at the end of the showcase, was pushed to the beginning and included explanations of the different clothes that were worn.
After 20 years, Jiang says the impact of the showcase and the ASA as a whole has changed dramatically.
“It still was and is a cultural org, but the representation wasn’t all over campus,” Jiang said. “The Asian students didn’t have a lot of representation [in the 90s], so it was a good way to find community within campus.”
For George, seeing the diverse presentation of culture reminds her of home.
“I think it’s a really good way of just seeing yourself represented, being able to come to the show,” she said. “At least for me, whenever I see like Jhumka I think of my family at home, and especially because we have so many Asian students on campus, I think it’s a good way to make them feel more welcome.”
A previous version of this article misnamed a student organization. The organization’s name has since been corrected.