Western Michigan University students, faculty and Kalamazoo community members were invited to celebrate Asian Pacific cultural heritage at the second annual Spring Gala March 22, hosted by the Haenicke Institute for Global Education’s Asian Initiatives. 

Held at Miller Auditorium, the celebration began with cultural informational booths, hands-on activities and snacks available for purchase.

At the booths, students were able to learn about WMU’s study abroad program, offered Chinese programs and more. Refreshments were provided by Pacific Rim.

Performances began shortly after. 

“This is a community-involved event, and we have almost 200 performers for tonight,” said Interim Associate Provost of Global Education and Senior Director of Asian Initiatives Ying Zeng. 

With performances ranging from fashion to singing and dancing, audience members were given a taste of the visual and performing arts of Pacific Asian culture.

The performers were introduced by Master of Ceremony Lynn Chen-Zhang, who also provided additional cultural information on some of the performances, which included dance and fashion acts by WMU students and staff, Kalamazoo Public Schools, the Kalamazoo Chinese Academy and other local Asian American organizations. 

Other performances included moving scenes from the Peking opera performed by award-winning actress Linghui Tu and actor Suosen Lv, pieces performed by The Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra and the Kalamazoo Children’s Chorus and more. 

“For this event, we invited the community on campus and the greater community to celebrate Asian culture together. You will see that a lot of local community organizations are participating,” Zeng said.

Zeng also emphasized the importance of understanding different cultures.

“Especially under the current environment, I think understanding each other is more important than ever,” Zeng said. “This event is one of the attempts for everybody to understand each other, to learn from each other.”

She continued: “I’m really happy that we get community support and I’m very proud that Western as well as Kalamazoo is a very open minded community.”

Information on Asian courses, programs, events and more can be found on WMU’s Asian Initiatives website.