First Pan-Asia Week seeks to highlight growth of Asian community on campus

Albert Lemuel Bunker arrived at UNC in 1878. He was the first Asian American student at the University, said Heidi Kim, professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature.

Over 100 years later, 14 percent of first-years admitted in 2016 were Asian or Asian American, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. To commemorate this, the Carolina Asia Center is hosting the UNC’s first ever Pan-Asia Week.

Asia Week 2017 is meant to promote better understanding of Asian and Asian American history and culture. Thupten Norbu, interim director of the Carolina Asia Center, said he believes it is extremely important to learn about any culture to have a holistic view of the world.

“There are so many Asians and Asian Americans at UNC, from faculty members, to staff, to students.” Norbu said. “Asia Week is meant to celebrate what we have contributed to this University as a whole.”

Norbu said this week is truly Pan-Asian — it has programs for Asian Americans, South East Asians, East Asians and South Asians. 

This week will provide students with Southeast Asian Language Workshops, where Thai, Vietnamese and Indonesian languages will be taught for free. An Asian Studies at UNC and Abroad Info Session will be held at the FedEx Global Education Center on Wednesday. Asia Week closes with an Asian Culture Festival, which is organized by the Carolina Asia Center, the Asian interest fraternity Pi Alpha Phi, the Asian Students Association and Sangam. 

Kim kicked off the week with the opening of an exhibit in Wilson Library dedicated to the growth of Asian and Asian American curricula and organizations on UNC’s campus. 

“The exhibit involves student organizations from the first ones we could find and of course a lot of the petitions for Asian curricula which reflect the growing importance of Asia and also the rising Asian population within the United States,” Kim said. “Asia Week really wanted to celebrate not just studying Asia but I think also the importance of Asia in UNC’s history.”

First-year Anna Hattle, service chairperson of the Asian Students Association, said this week is close to her heart. 

“The ASA is one of the largest cultural organizations on campus,” Hattle said. “It serves social functions, it gathers people together who don’t necessarily feel comfortable in the wider University space and it educates people by giving them resources they need to understand themselves and where they come from.”

Until today, Hattle said she saw the Asian Students Association as an individual organization. Seeing the alumni and the people who worked towards the historic changes and the growing Asian presence on campus made her realize there is precedent for what student organizations today are accomplishing. Hattle said she can’t wait for the rest of Asia Week.

“I am actually Indonesian, and there is a workshop tomorrow on the Indonesian language, and that’s crazy because the Indonesian population on campus is so small," Hattle said. "It’s nice to see that we’re still being represented."

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