A Celebration of Cultures - including American
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A Celebration of Cultures - including American
Enjoy the irony of this: AsiaFest 2008, held at HaggardPark in downtown Plano on 3rd May, intended to showcases the cultures of a number of Asian countries, achieved a second purpose too - it became a celebration of American life.
One expected that the participants in Aikido, Kung Fu, Tai Chi demonstrations and the Lion Dance would be of Asian origin. It was a pleasant surprise to see that over half the faces donning the martial arts uniforms were non-Asian Americans. This went for the Taiko drummers too.
The American aspect of the festival was emphasized by two other facts: a group of school-going Indian kids performing a remix of traditional bhangra and hip-hop; the funnel cake and hot dog stands amidst stalls selling Oriental artifacts and local institutions offering courses in various Asian disciplines.
The gazebo is a focal point of HaggardPark. A stage, where the performances took place, was improvised in front of the gazebo. I have seen a gazebo put to many uses but this is the first time I saw one used as a green room for the performers before their entry on stage! Talk about necessity being the mother of invention.
And when I saw the amount fun the children were having, running around in beautiful ethnic clothes, how women of all ages were using the opportunity to shop for unusual artifacts (and even some non-ethnic ones), how the seniors were watching the oft-seen displays of skill with detached composure, how tense and harassed parents were tending little children, how the young were holding hands on a gorgeous sunny day in spring, I saw the celebration as a reflection of American life itself.
The thought that stayed with me as I strolled through AsiaFest 2008 was: how infinitely rich is the second generation of Americans of Asian origin. They are the inheritors of two great traditions: the American and their parents’ original one. Eleven of these were represented at the fest: Indian, Bangladeshi, Chinese, Filipino,Japanese, Korean, Indonesian, Nepalese, Sri Lankan, Viet Namese and Taiwanese.
AsiaFest 2008 was for me the symbol of the diversity of American life. Just as the question, what is American life? does not admit of one answer, one could not say what precisely AsiaFest was, in he best sense of the question.
Was it an expo of the various cultures of Asia? Was it a demonstration of Asian martial arts? Was it a showcase of Bharatnatyam and other Indian classical dances, of traditional Filipino folk dances, the Chinese Lion and Dragon dances or the Cendarwasih dance of Indonesia? Was it an exhibition of the skill and hypnotic rhythms of the Japanese Taiko and Korean Samulnori drums? Was it a fashion show of ethnic costumes, a reminder that fabric come in hundreds of shades, enriched with bewildering shapes of embroidery and emboss? Was it a picnic and afternoon of unusual sights? Was it a show of unity in diversity. It was all these and more. It was a metaphor for American life.
