Nam-Hee Chung has never been this excited about the month of April before.

Chung’s enthusiasm stems from the fact that this month represents the start of Asian Pacific American Month and Asian organizations on campus have several events lined up for the celebration.

‘This is the first time Syracuse as celebrated this month, and I am very happy about it,’ said Chung, organizer of the event and president of Kappa Phi Lambda, as well as a senior management major, ‘but I hope that more of the Asian student organizations will get involved in the years to come.’

Asian Pacific Heritage Month came about during the Clinton administration on Oct. 28, 1992. The actual month takes place in May, but it is celebrated April due to it technically being the last month during the school year. Like other celebratory months dedicated to different groups of people throughout America, APA Month is a celebration of Asian and Asian Pacific cultures throughout the world.

Ignorance of other cultures runs rampant throughout the world and the majority of people never take the time to learn about different ethnic groups.

‘Until this trend changes months should be dedicated towards the education on minorities in society,’ said Tae-Sun Kim, the associate director of the Office of Multicultural Affairs.

A number of events are being sponsored by such organizations as Kappa Phi Lambda, OMA, the Student African-American Society, UU Comedy, Asian Students in America and a few others.

The month began on April 4 with a kickoff lunch buffet featuring different types of Asian cuisines, with more events being held throughout the rest of this month.

Coming this Friday, April 7, are a number of events ranging from topics of racial hate crimes and corporate ethics to hip-hop performances. Some events featured will be the documentary ‘Who Killed Vincent Chin,’ about a Chinese engineer who was mistaken as Japanese and was brutally murdered by a father and his son who had recently been laid off from their jobs. The film captures the story of how the two men went free and how the mother/widow moved back to China because she lost trust in the American system.

Another interesting event with a more up beat surrounding also hosted on this Friday is ‘two turntables and a mic,’ sponsored by the SAAS and APA. This show will comprise of a number of hip-hop performances, with guest appearances from rap legends Big Daddy Kane and Doug E. Fresh.

Other events throughout the month will involve Asian struggles within a society where assimilation is important as being accepted.

For example, the student organization A.S.I.A. will be holding workshops on discussions about Asians and the lack of knowledge about their cultures, as well as how to deal with such issues of lost identities on college campuses domestically and internationally.

A.S.I.A. will be sponsoring a final event April 29 at 8 p.m. in Goldstein Auditorium. This will be an event hosting a showcase from organizations all over the campus. Students will be educated on a number of interesting topics from all different walks of life.

‘Hopefully we won’t need these months in the future, but I don’t see this happening in either of our generations,’ Kim said.

Published on April 5, 2006 at 12:00 pm