The Asian Celebration’s 27th year celebrates community, planet – and Year of the Dragon

by Suzi Steffen on February 17, 2012 · 0 comments

Theme of unique Eugene event is “The future is in your hands”

Once a year, a large group of people – comprised of a variety of smaller cultural groups – converges, bearing food and drink, ready to cook and sing and dance. The people honor their elders and train their children, laugh and work and celebrate together, and even open their gathering to others.

This is the Asian Celebration, which began nearly three decades ago in Eugene and stands as the largest such event in Oregon. The celebration runs this weekend at the Lane County Fairgrounds, from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, February 18, and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday, February 19.

For a $6 one-day pass or a $10 two-day pass for adults (kids 12 and under get in free!), Eugenians can experience some of the joys of “Asian Christmas,” as one of the participants calls it.

In the Community Network Room, you can watch documentaries, participate in workshops, and learn about social issues for a variety of Asian groups.

Want to watch the traditional Chinese Lion Dance opening the celebration? Show up early on Saturday. Like mixed martial arts? There’s an entire stage devoted to ’em. Dancing and drumming? Try the Main Stage. Kids can make crafts, and adults can shop and learn about their own and other cultures; and then there’s the ever-popular Food Court.

But this year, the Celebration adds a little something different – a theme of sustainability, a theme of being “green.”

Co-chair David Yuen Tam says that’s appropriate because it’s the Year of the Dragon. Even the posters are in green and yellow, colors that he says stand for prosperity, among other things – meaning that he thinks it’s time to connect economics and the environment.

For instance, the Food Court won’t have any Styrofoam this year – nor will any other vendor. And then there’s the partnership with Waste Free Oregon to make sure food gets composted and that nothing recyclable gets thrown away. “We’re giving the responsibility to the community,” Tam says. “We’re saying, listen, what we do, recycling, etc., it’s a big deal.”

Presenter Monica Christoffels would agree. The Filipino-American college student, who attended a U.N. conference on climate change in Durban, South Africa, last year and who has protested the Keystone XL Pipeline in the U.S., will be giving a talk on Saturday at 4 p.m. about environmental issues across the large landmasses of Asia.

She thinks it’s key for Asian-Americans who were born in the U.S. or who, like her, have lived in the U.S. most of their lives to understand the larger issues around desertification, deforestation, ocean acidification and more. “Sustainability and environmental issues aren’t prevalent in some of the communities here,” she says, but she hopes to make the linkage obvious.

Tam says that the reason the event works so well in Eugene – thousands of people walk through the doors (approximately 18,000 are expected according to event organizers), and the celebration makes anywhere from $5,000 to $12,000 for nonprofits and scholarships – is a rather ironic reflection of the fact that Asian and Asian-American communities in Eugene aren’t that big, separately.

“In Portland, this wouldn’t work – the Japanese have their own events, the Chinese have their own events, the Filipinos have their events,” he says.

But in a town where Asians and Asian-Americans make up about four percent of the population, the communities band together. For instance, Tam’s president of the Chinese Benevolent Association, but it was David Toyama, an elder of the Japanese-American community, who recruited Tam to help chair the celebration.

That’s reflected in the entertainment, food and arts lineup as well as the celebration’s board . Watch bhangra dancers, eat lumpia and weave baskets or make paper jewelry – it’s all part of each day’s mix. Tam says that people often grab their programs and plot out how to pack everything in – but just end up coming back the next day for more anyway.

Tam loves it that little kids come to the celebration, and Christoffels says that her Millennial generation find the event appealing too. There’s even an anime room with a cosplay meet-up at 3 p.m. Saturday and a taste of the DisOrient Asian American Film Festival to come.

Christoffels, who grew up attending and volunteering at the celebration, says that’s why it’s like Christmas. “For me, it’s very comforting,” she says. “It’s easy to lose sight of my cultural heritage because even though I was born in the Philippines, I don’t know it.” She loves the food, the larger family, the music, the arts and crafts – and she has helped out in almost every area of the event.

“There’s always something to do,” she says.

If nothing else, of course, there’s the chance to meet new people. Tam knows at least one tale of a couple who met at the Asian Celebration.

“They recently got married,” he says. But they’re not unique. “You hear stories like this all of the time.”