Tour of Asia event provides sampling of Asian culture

The Asian Student Association provided a Marvel-themed tour of the Asian continent on Sunday night, which included dance and vocal performances as well as skits and a free buffet of Asian food.

The seventh annual "Tour of Asia" event, held in the Pegasus Ballroom of the Student Union, featured a variety of traditional and modern performances from nine different countries, including Vietnam, Japan and Malaysia. A free buffet of Asian food was also provided, courtesy of China Garden.

Last year's event was themed after the Mario Brothers, but this year's theme was based off of Marvel. Danny Cheng, president of the Asian Student Association, said they do this to make the event more enjoyable to UCF students.

"We try to keep it something that everyone can kind of relate to," Cheng said. "Everyone grew up playing Marvel characters, games and what not. It's just kind of something that's the ‘it' thing right now."

Each student association provided a performance unique to the culture of the country they represented. The Philippines, for example, was represented through the Filipino Student Association's Dance Troupe. Their performance featured two different types of dances: Sayaw sa Bangko and Tinikling. Sayaw sa Bangko is a folk dance involving the use of benches.

Neil Jacildo, a senior computer engineering major, is one of the performers for the Dance Troupe. He describes it as a dance that involves a good deal of acting.

"It's a flirtatious dance between couples," Jacildo said. "It takes a lot of finesse to do the dances on the benches themselves because they're pretty narrow. It's a combination of a show and the skillful dancing."

Tinikling is another dance which is considered the national dance of the Philippines. It's similar to rope jumping, but instead of a spinning rope, two bamboo poles are hit against raised blocks on the floor and then together.

Malaysia was represented by the Elite Epsilon Chapter of the Delta Phi Lambda sorority. They performed a simple piece called "Dikir Puteri." It was a multicultural piece that included influences from other cultures, such as Chinese and Indian. Brittany Tai, senior English education major, is a Delta Phi Lambda member that performed at this event. She said her performance took practice.

"We practiced for two weeks," Tai said. "We looked up YouTube videos and incorporated the different dance styles they had and we used it for ourselves."

Students in attendance enjoyed the event. Brandon Bregg, a sophomore civil engineering major, Found out about this event through UCF's Learning and Interacting with New Knights program, an incentive-based program to help freshman students get involved on campus. Students can attend programs and events on campus worth differing amounts of LINK Loot points and cash in those points for prizes at the end of each semester. The Tour of Asia was worth 2,000 LINK points, according to the LINK website.

"I came mainly for the LINK loot. I thought it was an hour-long small event, I'd get 500 LINK loot and leave," Bregg said. "But now I'm glad I came because it was a lot larger and I actually enjoyed myself. I didn't expect to."

Michael Mason, a sophomore social science education major, attended this event for the first time on Sunday. He found out about the event through an ASA member. He enjoyed the show a great deal.

"I thought it was fantastic," Mason said. "I thought the performances were full of talent. I thought everyone did a good job entertaining the audience. It was an all-around good time."

For more information on ASA's future events, go to their website at www.asaucf.org