STORY AND PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY HANNAH KAMPITAN, DIGITAL EDITOR
The Japanese Cultural Club (JCC) hosted the semester’s first International Cultural Festival on Thursday, Oct. 8, and it was a successful, inclusive event.
The event’s duration allowed multiple students to attend; lasting from 10:45 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. The first half of the event was located at the entrance of the FASS building, where an array of musical performances, dances, and cultural cuisine were located. The latter half relocated to the CCCPLX and Humanities building for a student presentation led by the Speech and Debate team and a telescope observation led by the Astronomy Department.
When I entered the event, I was immediately met with beautiful table arrangements from the culinary department, students and faculty in colorful cultural attire, and Japanese scallion pancakes from JCC. The event had many opportunities to become familiar with different cultures, and every moment had something new.
Every 15-30 minutes from 1:00 p.m. to 4:10 p.m., the culinary department would showcase live cooking demonstrations led by eight culinary students who represented a different part of the world. Following the demonstration, students would present free, premade samples of the time’s specific cultural dish to pass out to all attendees. I ate delicious cultural desserts based on these locations, the Philippines, Egypt, Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Japan, India, and Sicily. The culinary department’s food presentation schedule undeniably had attendees craving their next dish.
Kenneth Ramos, a culinary student majoring in hospitality and management, was the first to showcase a cooking demonstration at the event. He demonstrated how to cook pork barbeque with Philippine sauces.
“Aside from being able to learn more about different cultural foods in the restaurant industry, being able to see how unified we’re able to get [at the event] is beautiful,” Ramos said.
The cultural performances that I was present for–a Mariachi band, a Vietnamese fan dance, “Vu Phien,” a Japanese parade dance, and Tinikling–were great to watch. As a Filipino American who assumed that my culture was nowhere at Cypress College, watching students and faculty perform my culture’s bamboo dance “Tinikling” felt like a breath of fresh air.
The Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) program on campus performed the dance, a program I initially wasn’t aware of before the event. They were one of the many programs present to introduce students to the available resources and opportunities on campus. Cypress College’s Legacy Program, Life Program, Creative Guild, Speech and Debate Program, and Charger Experience Program were present at booth pop-ups. The art department also had an interactive wall where students were encouraged to put spray paint on.
Cypress College’s President Scott Thayer was present to show his support.
“It’s a great opportunity to celebrate the different cultures we have on campus; it exposes students, faculty, staff, and administrators to all the wonderful customs that occur within each group,” he said. “It’s nice for us to celebrate our uniqueness and the things that bring us together.”
I got a fresh, new bite into our campus’s many cultures and customs, and I’m proud to say that JCC did an amazing job hosting the event.
