‘Negative perception is a temporary situation’

Only junior Aibek Karimov and senior Ainur Aiypkhanova will be able to call themselves “Mr. and Ms. Asia” this year.\nThe pair were part of the Kazakh Student Association that participated in the eighth annual “Mr. and Ms. Asia,” which was organized by the Asian Student Union and held Sunday in the IU Auditorium.\nThis year, “Mr. and Ms. Asia” included two representatives each from the Asian American Association, Chinese Students and Scholars Association, Filipino Student Association, Indonesian Student Association, Japan Student Association and Kazakh Student Association.\nThe night began with the crowd cheering for its favorite contestants as they came out and walked around in their countries’ traditional clothing.\nAfter the three hosts made an entrance with Teletubby costumes and joked with the audience, the show began with a question and answer session. Each pair had to pick a question out of a bowl and, in addition, had to answer why they thought they were the best representatives for “Mr. and Ms. Asia.” \nThe random questions varied, but all of them had to do with the contestants’ cultures. One question asked contestants what one major issue of their country is. Contestants from the Chinese Students and Scholars Association said education was a problem in China.\n“If we don’t have education, our country can’t further advance,” said freshman Jake Zhang, a Chinese Students and Scholars Association contestant. \nContestants were also questioned about how they would try to end negative stereotypes that surrounded their culture.\nKazakh Student Association contestants both said the movie “Borat,” which portrays Kazakhstan in a negative light, has led to negative stereotypes about their country.\n“Negative perception is a temporary situation,” Aiypkhanova said. \nKarimov said the Kazakh Student Association would put on more events such as a coffee hour that will help students get a better understanding of their country and culture. \nMost contestants said as “Mr. and Ms. Asia” they would try to interact with organizations outside of the Asian culture since IU is a large campus. \nThe talent portion of the contest involved contestants teaming up with their organization to perform a number of dances.\nPurdue University junior Thuy Tran said she has been coming to the event for the past three years and the talent portion has always been her favorite part. \n“I like how all the organizations come together,” Tran said. “They put (in) a lot of hard work.”\nContestants from the Japan Student Association, junior Yuta Takei and senior Haruka Saito, sang a song with members of their organization as backup singers. They then performed a traditional dance, which represented a storm. \nSophomore Morgan Hartig was a performer in the Chinese Students and Scholars Association performance. She said her performance was a series of traditional Chinese stories, a version of Romeo and Juliet. \nAfter the individual talent portion from each organization, all of the \ncontestants got together to perform a mask dance routine. \nAsian American Association contestant and sophomore Patrick Kirby also said “Mr. and Ms. Asia” was a bonding experience in which he got to know a lot of people. Kirby and his partner, sophomore Catherine Nakamura, tied for the award of “Mr. and Ms. Congeniality.” Sophomore Paul Ramos and sophomore Marisa Santiago from the Filipino Student Association received “Mr. and Ms. Popular.”\nBefore the winners were announced, a short video about past years of “Mr. and Ms. Asia” was shown. \nFinally, after months of preparation and excitement, Karimov and Aiypkhanova won “Mr. and Ms. Asia.”\nKarimov said he did not expect to win, and that this was the first year the Kazakh organization participated in the event. \n“The environment of the contest was really friendly,” Karimov said. “We made a lot of friends.”\nAiypkhanova said she knew in the back of her mind she had a job to represent her organization.\n“My drive was to perform at a good level,” Aiypkhanova said.