Today we met Kwan and he gave a presentation on what the IACA is. He brought in Chinese restaurant food, which was really good. Kwan kept saying how this meeting is meant to be informal and casual, so when he presented, he sat down at a desk so we could have an open discussion.
He started off the presentation by talking about the Asian demographics in Indiana. He brought up how Asian immigrants came to Indiana for the universities and established the IACA in order to build a Chinese American community. Because of this, the IACA is meant to be a family organization, meaning that any events they hold are meant to be family-friendly and encourage everyone to learn more about Chinese American culture.
Kwan told his background story, which I thought was really interesting. He grew up in Hong Kong and came to the United States for high school. He’s been in Indiana ever since and has been a past president and current council member of the IACA. He’s mainly interested in cultural-teaching programs and events, such as the Lion Dance.
Kwan then presented the current IACA council members. The IACA is multiethnic and multinational, so it is not run just by Chinese Americans. Most of the council members are of Asian descent, such as Chinese, Indian, Vietnamese, and Thai. There was a white couple on the council too.
After learning about the council members, Kwan showed us the multiple events the IACA has throughout the year. They work with other Asian organizations to hold the Asian Festival, International Festival, and Chinese New Year celebration. He said that the celebrations are meant to be symbolic and open to everyone, meaning that they don’t involve a lot of money to run and any person can come in and celebrate with them. The IACA also takes students to Asian art galleries and celebrates Asian Heritage Month. One project called Project Matchsticks involves raising money for undocumented immigrants, which I thought was really cool and nice of the IACA to do. They also work with schools, such as Carmel High School’s A5 Club.
Kwan also talked about authentic Chinese food. He suggested some restaurants that have the best food in town. He also differentiated between North and South Chinese food, which I didn’t know had different food preferences. South Chinese food is more common in American Chinese restaurants. He also advised us to be wary of Chinese buffet restaurants because they use the same sauce for every dish.
At the end of the lecture, he showed a video of the Lion Dance at the International festival. The festival took place at the Global Village and, as Kwan mentioned, was very symbolic and didn’t appear to be exclusive or involve a lot of money to run.
After the lecture ended, Kwan thanked us for coming. I’m looking forward to the next lectures because I think I’ll gain a lot of insight into this organization more.