Asian American Association showcases culture 

Saturday, Nov. 8, in the St. Louis Room of the BSC, the Asian American Association (AAA) hosted their Fall 2014 Showcase, titled “jOURney.”  The showcase featured performances encompassing the rich diversity of cultures in Asia, including Korean Pop music, Hindi a cappella and karate.

The night kicked off with a buffet-style dinner that included Asiatic cuisine, such as samosas, malai kofta, lo mien and, of course, egg rolls, among other dishes.  While guests ate, the show started with the opening sequence of a skit based around the journeys of a Chinese international student and her ambassador, preparing to meet each other.  The narrative continued in segments throughout the night, showing the similarities between the two students and the breaking of the misconceptions they had about each other.

Following the skit, SLU Karate Club members demonstrated their talents with board breaking and mock fights.  These were followed by a Mongolian traditional dance and a performance of Korean love songs by Sixty-Six Percent, who’s name is a clever joke on the number of Korean students in their group.  Later in the night, AAA put on a fashion show, which presented the many different cultural outfits throughout Asia, while the models danced and posed, along with upbeat music.

Astha A Capella was present at the Showcase, demonstrating their rich musical combination of English and Hindi.  Astha represented the Indian culture, but was far from being made up of only Indian students.  Astha, as many of the other groups that performed at the Showcase, is made up of a diverse group of students, from different ethnic groups and backgrounds.  The night even brought in Washington University’s Hip Hop Union, which demonstrated different styles of hip-hop dancing from around the world.

Lo and the Littles, another band made up of AAA members, performed during the showcase.  Throughout the performance, Andrew Lo graced the audience with comedic quips in between songs.  Lo and the Littles is made up of Lo, a “Big” in AAA and three “Littles” in Andy Chen, John Ordono, and Alexa Lasam.  AAA has a system of Bigs and Littles in a similar way that fraternities and sororities might have.

Ada Oguejiofor explained it as an upperclassman and underclassman being paired as Big and Little, respectively.  The Big helps his or her Little adjust to college and gives him or her gifts anonymously.

“The Littles are all blindfolded and taken to an event to discover who their Bigs are, and then we take them out to dinner,” said Oguejiofor, of one of AAA’s annual events.

When asked what the hopes of AAA at SLU were, by performing their showcase, Oguejiofor states, “We’re hoping to get people interested in Asian culture and have a lot of fun here on campus.  We really want to connect with the University.” After our interview, Oguejiofor had to go and get ready for Cherry Crush KPOP, a large Korean Pop music dance group.  Cherry Crush danced to songs by Korean Pop-stars Sistar, Shinee, Hyuna and 4Minute.  The performance captivated the audience and was the finale for the night.