If one were to think of an organization that has made a persistent effort to increase awareness of Asian cultures on campus, the Asian Student Union or ASU is bound to come to mind. In the past few years, ASU has undergone a strengthening of focus – one that seeks to intentionally bring the diversity inherent to Asia to campus and celebrate it in novel ways. One initiative embodying this mission is A Night in Asia. This was ASU’s second year organizing the event, and Features spoke to members of the organization’s e-board to understand the work that goes on behind-the-scenes to put together an event of such scale.
As stated by current ASU President Cameron Kang ’26, the idea for the event was born out of a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training meeting in 2022 when Atalia Navarro ’25, the co-Inclusion chair for that year, proposed a combined showcase of cultures in an effort to facilitate greater inter-organizational collaboration in the larger Asian context. Since then, the event has seen widespread engagement on campus.
This year’s event took place on Oct. 18 on the ground floor of the Houghton Chapel. The room was lined with pop-up booths featuring delicacies and artifacts from a range of Asian countries and saw participation from several cultural organizations on campus. At the same time, on-campus dance and music ensembles such as Wellesley Asian Dance Organization (WADO) and Aiko put up elaborate performances showcasing artforms from various regions of the Asian continent on the Chapel’s first floor.
Doors opened at 7:00 p.m. when large groups of students showed up to view the performances before making their way downstairs to grab a plate of delicious food or buy a pair of earrings from one of the booths. The room was brimming with laughter and excitement as organizational vendors worked hard to meet the seemingly unending demand for food. Some organizations went a step further in engaging students by organizing fun activities such as the Pakistani Students Association’s initiative of offering to get your name handwritten in Urdu.
In the years to come, members of ASU envision A Night in Asia being a yearly occurrence that is attended by greater numbers than ever before. Riya Bhattacharjee ’26, who is currently serving as ASU’s Inclusion Chair, plans to have underclassmen be more involved in the organization for the event going forward as a means of leaving behind a legacy of sorts. A crucial part of achieving this is to establish institutional memory by “be[ing] intentional about communicating to underclassmen about what our goals are for this event and why that matters.” Bhattacharjee has also been in talks with previous members of the ASU e-board to expand the event beyond its current scope to “pair up [different orgs] with each other to potentially do a collaborative booth of sorts.”
With the recent turnout of A Night in Asia, Kang hopes for ASU to “transition from simply being a social org to something a little more meaningful.” ASU’s recent efforts have been geared towards ensuring that the e-board reflects a lot more Asian cultures by being more mindful about recruiting new members who are equally passionate about diversity and inclusion.
“ … even in interviews, [we] spend a lot of time asking people what their aspirations are for the club and how that relates to our goals of diversity and inclusion. A lot of the seniors have been working hard towards that. That’s the legacy that they would be leaving behind,” Kang said.
If you or anyone you know wants to have an on-campus org featured, email us at [email protected] or [email protected]!
Image credit: @wellesley_psa on Instagram
Contact the editors responsible for this story: Phoebe Rebhorn and Diya Khanna
