Fresno State’s diverse Asian culture is celebrated by Cambodian, Hmong, Japanese and Laotian students Tuesday-Saturday, March 6-10, in the annual Amerasia Week, with free public events at 6 p.m. daily at the Satellite Student Union.

Each night student groups will showcase unique cultural performances such as skits, dances and fashion shows, concluding March 10 with Festival Night.

The week’s theme is “Metamorphosis.” “This theme emphasizes how each Asian culture has evolved since arriving in the United States and yet people still hold strongly to their roots,” said Nu Vang, a member of the Amerasia Club at Fresno State.

Fresno State’s Asian student enrollment as the academic year began was 3,018 – 14.4 percent of the student body.

The Amerasia Week evening events are:

  • ŸTuesday, March 6 – The Cambodian Collegiate Association culture night: “Judge Me Not: The Story of Who I Am.”
  • Wednesday, March 7 – The Hmong Student Association hosts dances and folklore depictions.
  • Thursday, March 8 – The Japanese Student Association performs the Rock Soran dance and a cultural skit.
  • Friday, March 9 – The Laotian Student Association will showcase traditional dances and music.
  • Saturday, March 10 – Opening the performance for Festival Night will be the Lion Dance by the Lion Dance Group of Fresno. Also on the bill: modern dances by Prolix, a hip hop dance group from Fresno, and the drummers of Fresno Gumyo Taiko.

The Asian Faculty and Staff Association will host a discussion 2-4 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, on the restoration and preservation of the historic China Alley in Hanford. The free, public event is planned at the Henry Madden Library, Room 2206.

Ariana Wing and Steve Banister, authors of “Noodles through Escargots,” will lead the talk on China Alley, settled around 1877 by Chinese immigrants who came to work on the Central Pacific Railroad and stayed to farm. Wing and Banister’s book details the Wing family’s internationally known Imperial Dynasty restaurant over five generations as a China Alley landmark.

For more information, contact Song Vang, Amerasia Week coordinator, at mulan08@mail.fresnostate.edu or Vong Yang at vongyang@mail.fresnostate.edu.

(Copy by University Communications student news assistant Nicole Maul.)

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