ICR Reflection Journal: Indianapolis International Festival (1 of 3)

To complete the ICR portion of this course, I have been assigned to the Indiana Association of Chinese Americans, or the IACA. The IACA was one of hundreds of booths at the International Festival that took place this past weekend at the State Fairgrounds. The first day that I volunteered at the festival was Thursday evening when the foot traffic was quite minimal. We were able to meet some of the members who were more involved including Master Ling who runs martial arts studios of various types of practice in multiple locations throughout the Indy area (“we” being Maddie and Patrick in addition to myself). Some of the different martial arts groups performed on stage, and we were able to watch their presentations. We not only learned about the historical evolution of the different art forms, but we also were able to talk to some of the people who had participated in the showings with various levels of training and experience. It was cool to hear their perspective and see why they chose their respective martial art, what it had taught them, and how they connect to a culture that for some was different than their own. In addition, Master Ling told us about all of his students and the typical skill requirements needed to graduate to the next level. It was cool to learn more about something I was not so familiar with, and everyone made the cultural connections very accessible so you could see why things were done a certain way. It was a nice and easy way to start the festival and interact with other people in the community I probably would not have otherwise.