Daily Titan
By: Ellice Soliven
Article Launched:5/2/2007
Source [Link]
After
seven years of being off the Cal State Fullerton radar, the Cambodian
Student Association made its presence felt on Friday night with its
first culture night since 2000.
To celebrate Cambodian Lunar New Year, the scent of authentic Cambodian food wafted through Titan Student Union Ontiveros room while club members waited with their friends and families for the festivities to start.
Decorated with red, white and blue balloons and matching crepe paper streamers, the room filled quickly until every seat was taken. While Cambodian music played in the background, attendees had their names written in Khmer, the Cambodian language, and ate the food that was provided at the back of the room.
"I'm surprised at how many people showed up," said 22-year-old Bernard Lim, who volunteered to man the food tables. The accounting major and member of the club spent all night behind the tables, serving and describing dishes to onlookers.
Food included chicken and beef skewers, veggie egg rolls, pickled vegetable toppings and sweet buns filled with pork, egg and Chinese sausage. The most interesting of the selection, though, was the sweet banana rice rolls, Lim said. The rolls were slices of purple baked bananas wrapped with rice and green banana leaves, resembling a sushi roll.
"The food was really good," said accounting major Tony Heng, 23. "This is the first event that I've been to, so I'm looking forward to the dances."
The night's masters of ceremony: Vice President Melinda Ung and Officer JB Ngoy, welcomed everyone while people hurried to find a seat. They introduced the club's board members and recognized the event's sponsors.
To warm the crowd up, Ung and Ngoy joked with each other, alternating between Khmer and English.
"Dang girl, you put the 'body' in Cambodian!" was a highlight of Ung's English punch lines, in the midst of other Khmer jokes.
As laughs from the audience died down, the Blessing Dance began, performed by the club's president, Angelica Keam, and two high school students, Amanda and Breeana Men, from the Long Beach dance troupe The Spirit of Khmer Angkor. The dancers slowly circulated around the front of the room smiling serenely with petals in their hair. Ung later explained that the three young women, outfitted in jeweled silver, green and gold outfits and ornate crowns, carried small silver trays of yellow and red rose petals as they "blessed the audience."
The Blessing Dance is one of greeting and good wishes of happiness, usually performed at the beginnings of ceremonies, she said.
After the dance, members presented a slideshow of past events and meetings, played to Foo Fighters' "Times Like These."
The audience was comprised of not only friends, family and members of the club, but students from Cambodian associations at Cal State Long Beach, UCLA and UC Irvine who were there for support.
"All of our clubs are within one organization called the Khmer Student Coalition," said Keam, a 20-year-old public relations major. " All the Cambodian clubs come together … we inform each other of events and we help each other out with problems within the community or the club."
After the slideshow, members performed the Coconut Dance, which illustrates the courtship between male and female dancers. Three couples danced circles around each other while clapping each other's coconut shells. The dance symbolizes youth, fertility and the value of the life-giving coconut fruit, Ung said.
The night's festivities ended with Cambodian games, which led to singing and dancing in the front of the room, while the rest of the crowd socialized for the rest of the night.
"It was more people than we expected," said 22-year-old secretary Willa Duong, a business marketing major. "We were expecting something really little so I'm proud of everybody involved for their hard work and just getting the word out. We're just really proud that we got all these people out, and have them notice that our club has spread itself out in Fullerton."
Keam said she felt the same way, especially since this was the first culture event held after she and other members rebuilt the club that was disbanded in 2000.
"It was our first time doing this and we had a great turnout," Keam said. "I'm just very happy that our culture is representing Fullerton once again. For the past few years a lot of people haven't had the chance to see our culture, and I'm very, very proud that we accomplished this tonight and people are able to see our culture."
To celebrate Cambodian Lunar New Year, the scent of authentic Cambodian food wafted through Titan Student Union Ontiveros room while club members waited with their friends and families for the festivities to start.
Decorated with red, white and blue balloons and matching crepe paper streamers, the room filled quickly until every seat was taken. While Cambodian music played in the background, attendees had their names written in Khmer, the Cambodian language, and ate the food that was provided at the back of the room.
"I'm surprised at how many people showed up," said 22-year-old Bernard Lim, who volunteered to man the food tables. The accounting major and member of the club spent all night behind the tables, serving and describing dishes to onlookers.
Food included chicken and beef skewers, veggie egg rolls, pickled vegetable toppings and sweet buns filled with pork, egg and Chinese sausage. The most interesting of the selection, though, was the sweet banana rice rolls, Lim said. The rolls were slices of purple baked bananas wrapped with rice and green banana leaves, resembling a sushi roll.
"The food was really good," said accounting major Tony Heng, 23. "This is the first event that I've been to, so I'm looking forward to the dances."
The night's masters of ceremony: Vice President Melinda Ung and Officer JB Ngoy, welcomed everyone while people hurried to find a seat. They introduced the club's board members and recognized the event's sponsors.
To warm the crowd up, Ung and Ngoy joked with each other, alternating between Khmer and English.
"Dang girl, you put the 'body' in Cambodian!" was a highlight of Ung's English punch lines, in the midst of other Khmer jokes.
As laughs from the audience died down, the Blessing Dance began, performed by the club's president, Angelica Keam, and two high school students, Amanda and Breeana Men, from the Long Beach dance troupe The Spirit of Khmer Angkor. The dancers slowly circulated around the front of the room smiling serenely with petals in their hair. Ung later explained that the three young women, outfitted in jeweled silver, green and gold outfits and ornate crowns, carried small silver trays of yellow and red rose petals as they "blessed the audience."
The Blessing Dance is one of greeting and good wishes of happiness, usually performed at the beginnings of ceremonies, she said.
After the dance, members presented a slideshow of past events and meetings, played to Foo Fighters' "Times Like These."
The audience was comprised of not only friends, family and members of the club, but students from Cambodian associations at Cal State Long Beach, UCLA and UC Irvine who were there for support.
"All of our clubs are within one organization called the Khmer Student Coalition," said Keam, a 20-year-old public relations major. " All the Cambodian clubs come together … we inform each other of events and we help each other out with problems within the community or the club."
After the slideshow, members performed the Coconut Dance, which illustrates the courtship between male and female dancers. Three couples danced circles around each other while clapping each other's coconut shells. The dance symbolizes youth, fertility and the value of the life-giving coconut fruit, Ung said.
The night's festivities ended with Cambodian games, which led to singing and dancing in the front of the room, while the rest of the crowd socialized for the rest of the night.
"It was more people than we expected," said 22-year-old secretary Willa Duong, a business marketing major. "We were expecting something really little so I'm proud of everybody involved for their hard work and just getting the word out. We're just really proud that we got all these people out, and have them notice that our club has spread itself out in Fullerton."
Keam said she felt the same way, especially since this was the first culture event held after she and other members rebuilt the club that was disbanded in 2000.
"It was our first time doing this and we had a great turnout," Keam said. "I'm just very happy that our culture is representing Fullerton once again. For the past few years a lot of people haven't had the chance to see our culture, and I'm very, very proud that we accomplished this tonight and people are able to see our culture."