Submission: Night market shows lack of Taiwanese representation

When I first received a Facebook invitation to the “first-ever night market”, sponsored by USAC’s General Representative 2, I was taken aback. Why and how had I not heard about this before? After all, I serve as the public relations director for the Taiwanese American Social Change Initiative and am a highly engaged and involved UCLA Bruin.

My immediate reaction was confusion, then irritation and ultimately, disappointment. First with the fact that this night market was being falsely advertised as “first-ever” and secondly, because the idea of “night markets” are very much deeply rooted in Taiwanese culture, history and society.

It can be debated that perhaps the General Representative 2 meant to promote this event as the “first-ever USAC night market,” in which they would be correct. Unfortunately, it can also be interpreted to understand that General Representative 2 did not thoroughly research the history of night markets on campus. In fact, the Taiwanese American Union hosted a night market at UCLA back in 1998 and the Hong Kong Student Society has hosted its own night market in 2009.This blatant oversight and erasure of Asian and Asian American student history, efforts and struggles is unacceptable.

Although the origin of the concept of “night market” is not well-documented, the pervasive social and cultural connotations suggest deep roots in East and Southeast Asia. However, the night markets of Taiwan are arguably the most renowned, celebrated and shared worldwide. For example, the legendary 626 Night Market was inspired from Shilin Night Market in Taipei. The fact that General Representative 2 did not reach out to Taiwanese communities on campus in the form of an invitation to table or simply to discuss our previous night market successes is insensitive at best, and could even be interpreted as a form of cultural appropriation at worst. I realize some South Asian organizations have their own history with night markets and do not mean to suggest night markets “belong” solely to Taiwan.

When confronted via Facebook about the reasoning behind the lack of Taiwanese representation, General Representative 2 made a comment on their event page stating, “(The organizations) participating in this week’s night market are ones that reached out to us themselves or had contacted us letting us know of their interest. We however did try to reach out to different entities such as council and mother organizations to ask them about their interest in the night market.” However, all board members of the Asian Pacific Coalition, the mother organization for TASC Initiative, confirmed no invitation was extended to APC and its members. Because of a personal relationship with General Representative 2 Aaliya Khan, the Nikkei Student Union was there, but otherwise no other East Asian organization was represented.

We, the Taiwanese community, are very much present at UCLA and deserve equal visibility as every other culture represented in USAC. A lack of representation – or personal relationship – to USAC offices should not equate a lack of representation for diversity programs on campus. USAC-sponsored programs should not offer an unfair advantage for cultures directly represented by USAC members. Our student government needs to be considerate and aware of cultures beyond those embodied in their staff.

Overall, I applaud the General Representative 2 office for hosting the night market tonight in hopes of bridging different communities and cultures together. I believe General Representative 2 had good intentions in the creation and production of this program. I am positive that all students who attended were able to learn more about and celebrate the cultures that did have the opportunity to table.

Yet, General Representative 2 was insensitive in not reaching out to any Taiwanese communities on campus. I understand this is the first-ever attempt of a night market for General Representative 2. I realize that there are limited spaces as per fire marshal regulations and I realize General Representative 2 meant no ill intent by excluding Taiwanese organizations. In fact, I look forward to taking advantage of this situation to begin building a partnership between General Representative 2 and TASC Initiative.

Nevertheless, especially as a student representative for the UCLA Academic Senate’s Committee on Diversity and Equal Opportunity, I believe it is essential to be critical of these issues. This is not a petty, spiteful attempt to pick a fight. This is a wake-up call that even good intentions to improve campus climate can result in unintentional, upsetting and insensitive repercussions.

Hsu is a fourth-year neuroscience student and the public relations director for the Taiwanese-American Social Change Initiative.