Cai, along with more than 100 other students of many ethnicities, gathered in Brody Hall to celebrate cultural awareness at East Asian Culture Night, hosted by Emmons Hall mentors and Office of Cultural and Academic Transitions, or OCAT, aides.

As one of the main coordinators for the event, finance junior Kundy He, an Emmons Hall OCAT aide, said she hoped the event gave students a chance to make new friends from a variety of backgrounds.

“The purpose of (this) event is to provide Asian students the opportunities to explore their culture, but at the same time, we want people from the other side of the world, like America, to learn more about Asian culture,” he said.

In Brody Auditorium, five East Asian student groups, including MSU Japan Club, Thai Student Association and Malaysian Students Organization, performed a mixture of acts, such as Korean drumming, Chinese penmanship, prose by famous Thai poet Phra Sunthorn Vohara and demonstrating how to introduce oneself in Japanese.

To dispel misconceptions that kung fu strictly involves Jackie Chan or an animated panda, economics freshman Yíao Jiang performed a traditional martial arts combination he learned more than eight years ago from an instructor in China.

“(Kung fu) is like water,” he said. “It can enter anything.”

After the presentations, students munched on a buffet of more than $1,000 worth of catering from Golden Wok, 2755 E. Grand River Ave., he said. Students also learned how to write their names in Korean and Thai, created their own panda masks, learned the art of origami and created dragon bookmarks and Chinese lanterns.

DJ Zhicong Ding also treated visitors to an assortment of both Asian and American music, inviting students to celebrate on the open dance floor.

Premedical sophomore and Emmons Hall OCAT aide Jackie Kelly said the group of mentors and aides had been planning the event since near January and reached out to all Asian organizations, inviting them to participate.

“(It is about) spreading cultural awareness and learning,” she said. “I hope (students) learn at least one new thing and connect with other students they might not normally know and find more in common.”