Taiwanese dancing, food and traditional games took over the Gladish Community and Cultural Center as the WSU Taiwanese Student Association (TSA) held its fifth annual Taiwanese Night Market on Saturday.
The Night Market event is the biggest event of the year for the organization. TSA President Ric Chao said they had been planning for the event for a long time.
He said organization members and others helped prepare for about six months. Through the event, students were able to experience a piece of Taiwan's history. Chao said he is proud of those that helped put the event together. The hard work paid off, he said.
"After our opening, I could see that we have caught the attention of our attendance," Chao said. "Our hosts were doing very well, they played games with the audience and had a lot connection with the audience. Of course, when our hosts announced the first run of the Yachi (food time), everybody ran to the food table, and just by looking their facial expression and also their comments after eating, I know our guests were very satisfied with our food."
Chao said he heard guests talking about the show, the food, the video and other presentations during the event.
"One of the guests from Seattle, Jim Tsai, even said that just the shows of the event is worth more than the cost of the ticket," Chao said. "So, plus all the food, gift and prize they had, the cost of the ticket is way too cheap for this wonderful event."
There were also various music and dance performances by TSA officers.
“(We had) seven very professional performances including professional Taiwanese pop dance, singing, belly dance, Kong Fu (BaGua), Lion Dance and the dance provided by the TSA officers,” Chao said.
TSA Vice President Derrick Hwang said this year’s Night Market event was the organization's most well-attended yet. Hwang said the event has continuously grown on several college campuses across the state of Washington and he hopes they were able to recreate the Taiwanese Night Market experience here in the WSU community.
Other activities during the night included a series of traditional Taiwanese games including Taiwanese pinball, stacking rings and a three-by-three grid game alongside many more traditional games.
As the evening began to come to a close, attendees were also able to watch a brief PowerPoint and video about the history of Taiwan and its traditional night markets.
Chao said the annual event is what defines the Taiwanese Student Association and their mission statement of promoting Taiwanese culture to the WSU and University of Idaho community.
The organization also aimed to gain cultural recognition in the Pullman community.
“We hope that through this event people can recognize that even though Taiwanese culture derives from Chinese culture, (it is) still in many ways different and unique from the Chinese culture,” Hwang said.
