A Taste of Home: Asian Night Market

On Saturday, April 16, students tasted food samples from the different Asian cultures represented at Asian Night Market (ANM), hosted annually by Asian Advisory Board (AAB) in Grainger Auditorium.

The heavier preparation for ANM took place in late winter term. Members of AAB made trips to H Mart and cooked the food, and AAB also communicated with all of the club co-heads and advisers for entertainment such as Henna, Origami and Chinese Calligraphy.

International student coordinator Jennifer Smith said, “There’s a lot to coordinate and a lot of ‘behind the scenes’ pieces that go into making this event a success. OMA’s [Office of Multicultural Affairs] collaboration with the Office of Student Activities is invaluable. Ms. McGahie and Mrs. Trueman have a lot of experience and think of everything.”

This year’s event differed from past years’; Pinoy Society is a new club that was represented and due to the popularity of the event last year, the AAB made some changes. Since club booths had run out of food quickly last year, AAB increased the budget for each club to buy the food they needed and attendees were given five free tickets to try out different food samples. Although students were offered slightly limited servings, none of the food at any of the booths was available to be purchased in order to make the event open to everyone without having to pay. 

“Coming from someone who has little exposure with Asian culture, I felt that it was truly a great experience and that we should have more of these events.”

Each organization at the event allowed the community to try out its food. The Chinese Student Organization (CSO) served fried dumplings, Thai Society brought Bubble Tea and Thai noodles and a plethora of different food samples were provided. Some of the booths further taught the community about different parts Asian cultures with events like Chinese calligraphy, Henna and learning how to make paper cranes with the Origami booth.

Many students felt that the event opened their eyes to cultures they had previously not been exposed to. Lower Jaynee Anaya said, “I was amazed by how much diversity we had here through the festival and the mixture of food, dancing and music was not only entertaining but also a very memorable experience.” She continued, “Coming from someone who has little exposure with Asian culture, I felt that it was truly a great experience and that we should have more of these events.”

During the event, four dances were performed. They began with a performance from two seniors, Emma Kim and Kendall Kuzminskas, who demonstrated a dance they learned during their past winter term abroad in Taiwan. They were followed by Beat of Asia (BOA), Exeter’s Asian hip-hop group. After this, the campus breakdancing group, ITXC, performed and to close out the night two members from Sub-Continent Society danced to the beats of Bollywood.

“All the dance performances were great, and I love how I was able to watch bits of different dance cultures. I especially loved the breakdancing performance because it was really cool to watch,” prep Wynter Tracey said.

Although the event was not perfect—a few of the booths ran out of food faster than anticipated—the coordinators are looking forward to tweaking the event for next year.

Smith said, “We will continue to look at portions and cost effective ordering so that everyone can enjoy throughout the duration of the event.” But the evening was still a success, and new ideas for next year are already circulating. Smith added, “I love seeing students dressed in their traditional cultural garb. We have already discussed the possibility of a fashion show next year!”